A/N: I don't really remember much how things went down in the Syrup Village and Orange Town Arc so take this with a grain of salt, okay? I apologize for the inconveniences I might cause if I forget some scenes. Please do review if you wish.

Usopp was lounging in his front yard, having gotten tired for tinkering with his devices and staying cooped up in his house all day, and decided to bask in the late afternoon sun to relax. The grass feels soft and ticklish under him, but he didn't move as if moving the slightest was going to break the tranquility he's been basking in for the last few hours.

He was back in his hometown in the Gecko Islands in his beloved Syrup Village, after the skirmish with the Black Cat pirates they fought with a couple days ago he was here to stay, and his crew left him here to rest up and recover more properly.

He finally got his eye checked out, too, and apparently he was lucky enough that the attack from one of the Nyanban brothers weren't all too deep so his eye was perfectly fine. The only thing that would be left from the wound would be three long nasty scars that starts from the upper part of his eyebrow which ends halfway down his face.

It was ugly and it itches like hell, but he'd look a little more jaded when the bandage would be removed— or maybe a little intimidating, too, now that he thought about it, although the vegetable trio might just think it would be cool once the scabbing stops.

(Kaya, well, she'd probably faint again.)

As for his left arm, however, it was fine and healing normally even though he wished that it would heal even more faster since he couldn't properly use it to tinker and work with. Even though it hurt like hell when those enemy pirates threw him at the sails and it broke his said arm when he landed haphazardly. It's annoying.

It scared the villagers, though, when he came home and they saw what injuries he accumulated this time— he doesn't come home that much anymore, and this time was actually the first in the five months he'd been at sea.

Even being East Blue, the weakest sea, it was still wide and sailing around it isn't just going to take a couple weeks, after all.

When the villagers and the vegetable trio confronted him about what happened, he didn't exactly tell the full story, or the other truth of it— claiming he'd fought a Sea king to save his crew and the gash on his eyes was because the creature slashed at him with it's 'enormous claws'. It disappointed him that the villagers didn't react as much as he wanted them to for his 'greatness and fiery bravery', but at the same time he didn't want to worry them about his well being more than they were already every time he leaves the shores.

They hide their concern quite well, masking their unease with anger or disappointment for his leave, but you can't really kid a kidder when he's even the king of it.

Ninjin, Piiman, and Tamanegi confronted him of his injuries again when he got home and got settled down for the day, asking him for more stories after he finished telling another story about how he rode a giant turtle to save his Captain or that time when he beat a ghost monster with his trusty Usopp Hammer.

The trio were such ambitious kids, listening to wild stories about great things and beings even when their own dreams were so simple compared to what he'd been telling them— but it's nice, of times like this when he retells and creates tales of this and that to his original audience even before he found his current captain stranded on their shores years ago.

The three were still afraid of the clown, though, but Usopp can see why they were as he'd been terrified of Buggy when he did spot him from the cliffs, recognizing him from the bounty posters distributed from the Marines but he couldn't just leave him there at the same time.

He had his morals, damnit, and somehow he managed to haul the older man into his home (and miraculously going unnoticed by the villagers and mayor) were he nursed the guy back to proper health inside his house even though he almost shat himself to death when the clown decided to gasp awake like he was dying or something and he had been running from the devil himself while he was at it. Like a mom would, probably. But that wasn't the point.

Which was so far off the bat because everything about him in terms of physical health was completely normal aside from the fever he got from almost drowning in saltwater.

So with this in mind, he recalled how that ordeal went from him waking up to the pirate throwing knives at him until throwing up beside his bed and him passing out again. Which both of them was screaming at each other during that time.

If it wasn't for the panic, adrenaline and fear at that time, it would've actually been funny as a thing to remember for. But it's not because he actually had to clean the bile on the floor himself and it was utterly disgusting. So fucking much. He remembers hating to do that with a burning passion he had been inclined to kick the unconscious pirate because of it, but never did do it anyway.

Buggy was a swell and nice guy when he wasn't in a bad mood or suffering from a major hungover, Usopp liked him very much, but he can be brash and harsh sometimes which caused them many troubles before. But that's fine, everyone had their problems after all, they got out of it every time and they both talk about it every once a while.

Out of rest of the crew, his captain was the closest to him (his relationship with Cabaji and Mohji was simple comradeship, and they somehow seemed like older cousins to him at some point) and Usopp always stuck to his side because he was awkward and was still uneasy of the rest of the Buggy Pirates when he did first boarded the Big Top, and that just became a habit ever since.

As Usopp stares at the sky in reminiscence, recalling the earliest starts in his pirating career and his time spent with his crew, those times he entered and left Paradise fearfully and at the same time excitedly, when he met with a certain Warlord and how absolutely a shitshow that had been— he hears a familiar trio of feet running to him faster than usual.

At that, Usopp slowly sits up, careful not to put his weight into his injured arm that much and awaits their arrival with little curiosity on his features. They were probably going to ask him to tell them another story or two again, or ask him to show them what he'd been working on recently. Maybe even offer to help him with them if they knew they could do it sure enough.

He was at least 60 percent it was the first one, and he begins to think about a new story, fresh and maybe extra unique today, were there had been one day he beat a giant who ate everything in it's path and he defeated it by—

But as he was thinking of more absurd and outlandish details for his new story, Ninjin cut him off abruptly even as they were still a few meters from him, and the fearful expressions on their faces told him otherwise what they were here for.

Usopp sat up straighter, shoulder tense and back rigid, and waits for the boy's continuation.

"Captain! Captain! " Ninjin breathlessly calls out, stopping halfway in his tracks to catch his breath, Piiman and Tamanegi following suit, all three of them were panting heavily and that just made him more concerned.

"Ninjin, " he starts worriedly, "What are you— "

"Captain! Pirates are here! "

•••

The longnose tried to stand as straight and look as intimidating as he could, standing atop one of the cliff sides on one of the beaches in Syrup Village. He doesn't have his satchel or his slingshot, having left them inside his house (which he cursed himself for forgetting to get them in hurry from the three's reports of possible threats on their territory) but that was fine, it was fine enough because he wouldn't be able to pull his arms back in order to use his slingshot, anyway.

So, with the straightest and most serious face he could muster in his current state, he readies his trusty musket as he confronts the trio of pirates that showed themselves in the shores of his hometown.

They sailed with a rowboat that he could recognize too well, and maybe this was the small team of thieves his captain has called him about a while ago via Den den.

He was tinkering with his new inventions during that time, a careful and shaky hand both working their ways through screws and metal when his personal Den den began to ring beside him— the familiar purupuru of the snail drowning the sound of metal on metal pretty quickly— the little snail taking form of Buggy's most obvious appearance when he picked up the receiver.

Usopp was confused as to why his Captain decided to call him only a day after their last conversation and three days after they left, but he figured the older man just wanted to check on him or something, and maybe ask or fill him in about the repairs on the Big Top, or his recovery, but he was surprised when he was met with the strained voice of his Captain instead of the usual tone of his voice (loud and exuberant it often outmatched his own).

He almost shot up from his seat in alarm when he heard it, mind already going through various scenarios of what had happened on their side of East Blue until the clown had to fully explained what happened.

They docked at the ports of Orange Town, West from where Syrup Village is located, and decided to raid the only bar in the town but left everything else and everyone unscathed (because rules are rules within the Ravens Lock Domain and no one wouldn't even dare break it unless there's a good reason to— the big boss was terrifying as hell when he's mad and he didn't like innocent people getting hurt), lounging on the rooftop of said bar until someone stole something from them and some people had to go after her.

Buggy also told him that some idiot was flying a giant bird and, like the tipsy great genius that he was, ordered them to be shot down which caused a whole ton of commotion and the said idiot also turned out to be the thief's boss who betrays him and turns him in because... betrayal is an almost everyday thing in the lives of outlaws that sails under Jolly Rogers or just normal thieve flags (or something like that), apparently.

But as he listened more and more about happened, the more he struggled to keep a worried and straight face.

"She what? " he asks, almost exasperated, and looks at his Den den with an almost disappointed expression. The snail only rolls it's eyes.

"The mikan girl stole the map to the Grand Line! Can you believe that!? " his Captain's loud angry voice rung from the other end of the line and Usopp had to stop himself from sighing out loud.

"Buggy, Cap, Captain— the Great Boke no Buggy, " Usopp says then as a frown formed on his lips, "We went to Paradise a lot of times, and you even more, we don't even need the map anymore to be able to sail there. " he sat back down, discontent and kind of grumpy at this point, "It would've made more sense if she stole the Logposes instead of the map, but she didn't, so what's the big deal with the map? Or did you just want to cause a scene? "

There was a long pause and his captain didn't reply for a few minutes, which wasn't worrying at all, actually. Now that he knew what happened and it wasn't actually something else, save for a certain moss with swords he's heard of.

"You know, sometimes I regret just taking you in. " Buggy's voice says, grumbly and mopey, but Usopp just snorts and rolls his eyes.

His captain tells him more about what happened, but he was surprised that the same 'idiot' who'd been on the bird was the one who beat his Captain and almost catapulted his head into the horizon if he hadn't dodged last minute.

But still, the story was absurd, and although Usopp was skeptical he still took the clown's words to look out for the certain rag-tag group anyway.

Yup, he was sure, looking at the most obvious of their appearances they were the same people that stirred trouble back in Orange Town.

A mikan haired girl, a boy with a straw hat and red vest, and Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro.

He was surprised to see him in this small band of thieves, and briefly wondered if the guy formed his own team or something. Word got around he escaped with someone else from a Marine Base, and the boy with the Strawhat might be him, considering the stories of rubber and inhuman stretch of limbs.

But Usopp doesn't immediately attack them, and instead went for interrogation for his first confrontation, as well as some questions.

"Huh? Who are you? " the one with Straw Hat says first, casting a curious look his way and Usopp furrows his brow when he notices the green one grip one of his katanas harder, Roronoa Zoro's eyes were fixated on his musket.

Good.

(It's a warning, a warning for certain shots to be made and things that will go wrong as soon as someone says something off, and he's glad that the pirate hunter knows that. Because even when Usopp is handicapped, he still has distance and weapon advantage— a sword wouldn't cut through as fast, and maybe he can dodge the straw hat boy's rubber punches fast enough if he was careful. The vegetable trio had already gone back to the village.)

"I am the Great Captain Usopp! " he says, grinning widely and outstretched both his arms to accompany the theatrics even if it hurt like hell, and looks down down onto the group of three down on the shore once again. "I am the leader of 8 million men! Leave before I bring down my wrath upon you! "

At his obvious lies, the green one loosens his grip on his katana's hilt and the mikan rolls her eyes. The strawhat one just seemed to look amazed.

"WOAH! Really!? "

"Really! " Usopp declared, putting his musket down like a cane, "I am also the one and only Sniper King! I can shoot a fly miles away from where I am now, and I guard this island with 80 million men! "

"Wait, I thought you said it was 8 million guys? "

"He's obviously lying, you idiot! " the orange haired girl punched the other boy upside the head, and he sulks.

"Oh no! I've been found out! "

"He just sold himself out. "

"Did you consider it!? "

"I mean, he could've had some guys, I'm just being extra careful here. " The Pirate Hunter says, looking at the girl with a neutral expression. Bored, even. "And even if he looks weak, I'm not keen on underestimating enemies. "

Usopp frowns, planting his feet harder on the ground and ignores how his left eye seemed to pulse and it hurt.

But he wasn't hurt by the swordsman's words— he knew he was weak, weak even with after 2 years of training and reaching for more and more, but that was the point of his dreams, wasn't it?

Usopp was still a coward as he was before becoming a pirate, but he's grown, now, and he was a little stronger.

(He swallows the saliva sitting on his tongue, and wills himself to smile as the sun shines down on his skin. The sound of waves almost reassuring if it wasn't for it's laughter ringing out in the deaf wind.

The sky, stretching and rolling above the land, the clouds, sharing the same smile with the ocean itself.)

"Either way, " he says and interrupts their useless bickering, catching back their attention as he reels them in, "I'm not letting Buggy muscle on my island so what's your deal? I can't not just leave you be. " Usopp tells them and kind of relishes in the irony a little bit— because he is one of Buggy's commanders, anyway. He would've chuckled if he wasn't trying to be serious in this current situation.

He knew he doesn't look like much compared to the green haired swordsman, since he wasn't as buff (he still have muscle though, and wasn't as frail as he used to be). But he can still fight, he shot down enemies before and that might just be enough to defend a little bit.

The longnose knows that he wouldn't be able to beat them since they beat his Captain and the others, at least he have to try lest his facade becomes completely useless.

He just needs to pretend he isn't a Buggy Pirate, which was easy enough, so those three wouldn't outright attack him and maybe he could get some answers why they even bothered stealing a map to the Grand Line when they didn't look much as a pirate crew themselves.

Perhaps for profit? Maybe, but Buggy told him they left with some of their loot then, too, so what the hell?

"Maybe they're just greedy. " he thinks to himself, "The marimo is famous for his drinking, so maybe that's why. He's looking for easy money. "

Usopp notices the boy with the strawhat staring at him quite intently, and he narrows his eyes in caution. He was about to ask why, but he was quickly interrupted by him.

"Hey! I recognize you now! " the rubber boy says, pointing a finger at him, "You're Yasopp's son, right!? I knew I recognize your name somehow! " and he laughs like he's just won the greatest puzzle of all time, and the others just took to looking at him strangely.

"Luffy, you know him? " the mikan asks with an accusatory tone as her face scrunched up in confusion.

"Not really, " Luffy says and Usopp listened, leaning in quite curiously, "But I know his dad! Yasopp's in Shanks' crew— Shanks was the one who gave me this hat, you know. "

His name was familiar to the sniper, but he couldn't quite pinpoint where or when he did hear it from at some point.

"There's this kid Shanks keep talking about. " A deep familiar voice says from the other side of the room, accompanied with something scratching against Adam wood. It seemed thoughtful.

"I hear ya, " another voice says, and he hears Buggy slide something in the same surface of where the scratching is from, "I've heard about him, too, it's annoying as hell but I won't try to keep up with whatever's on his mind for the kid. It doesn't concern me."

"I wonder if I'd see the child ride up as much as the Red hair hopes for him, at least, that's what I'm waiting to happen. "

There was a pause as if those words hung awkwardly in the air, but he knew it wasn't completely quiet when he heard the subtlest whispers that was exchanged inside the Captain's cabin.

"Likewise. "

His memories are jumbled, and he never got to finish hearing what they said next when Mohji caught him in the act and dragged him into the deck for a scolding.

He slid down from the cliff he stood atop and walked towards the three, stopping in his tracks when there was a considerable distance between them. He wants to ask more because Luffy knew his father and he just can't stand being outed from important information again, but he was interrupted before he spoke.

"We're not actually Buggy Pirates, we just used one of his boats to escape . " the mikan haired girl— Nami— his mind resupplied him when he heard her name being thrown in the bickering, tells him and put her hands on her hips.

"Yeah! Who'd do anything for that stupid big nose! " Luffy exclaimed and Usopp almost laughed, but steadied himself just as quickly.

"We're just here for a new ship, a real one."

"And new Nakama! "

From his right, the pirate hunter sighed, and Usopp at this point decided to just play along.