Everyday life with the Straw Hats

Mariejois arc: part 16: Usopp vs. Vermin, an unexpected battle!

With two of the street badgers knocked out, and their leader webbed to a wall. Usopp quickly thanks the Spider girl that saved his life. "Thank you miss, if it wasn't for you I would have been dead by now." Usopp says sheepishly.

Rachnera eyes him with a sharp, piercing gave. "Don't bother thanking me, human. I thought it would be fun to web him up and so I took the chance. I wasn't doing it to save your sorry butt." Rachnera says coldly. "I'm surprised you haven't run away by now or pissed your pants, considering my appearance. You should be scared out of your mind." Rachnera states.

Usopp looks confused by her words, "I don't know what you mean by that, you don't really seem all the scary to me, and believe me, a lot of things scare me." Usopp says with a light laugh. But Rachnera's stone cold glare doesn't loosen up a bit.

Unbeknownst to them, the street badger leader pinned to the wall was using his pocket knife to cut his way out of the web while they were busy talking.

Usopp asks "What is your name anyway, and what are you doing here to begin with?"

"My name is Rachnera, and my business is none of your concern, human." She says with distaste in her voice.

But before Usopp could respond to her. There was a gunshot that came off from behind them. moments later, Rachnera fell to the floor, her shoulder bleeding from the gunshot, she was in agonizing pain.

Usopp quickly turned to the source of the gunshot to see it was the street badger leader that was webbed up.

The thug stood there with a despicable grin on his face. "that spider lady was an eyesore to look at, but now that she is out of the way, its time to show you what I can really do." He grinned as his body started to morph. His skin turned into rotten filth and his body become only what could be described as a humanoid pile of sewage and dumpster waste. He was turned into some sort of garbage human.

"What…. are you?!" Usopp said in a shocked tone.

The once-normal-looking street punk smiled menacingly at Usopp, and decided to explain what was going on. "My name is Vermin. As you already know, I'm the leader of the street badgers. But I was once the captain of the fearsome 'Roadkill Pirates!' until we decided to lay low and resort to street-level crimes, that way we could avoid the unwanted attention of the navy." He explained. "and my power, it's a logia type ability, I ate the Trash-Trash Fruit, turning my body into a compost pile. I have the power to summon the bacteria and filth around me, as well as being able to transmit any disease of my choosing onto my victims." Vermin stated proudly. "A while ago there was this punk with a straw hat who beat up me and my gang before I had a chance to react. I underestimated him, but I won't make that mistake with you!" Vermin growled viciously.

Usopp, after hearing all this, smiles eagerly. "If what you're saying is true, I'm sure your logia body is made out of primarily biodegradable materials, am I right? And on top of that, those horrible gases coming from your body, that probably makes you a highly flammable target." Usopp says triumphantly.

Vermin just laughs at Usopp's idea. "That won't work on me, because of my advanced haki, my body is no longer susceptible to that weakness." Vermin states proudly. "Now enough chit chat, its time for you to ROT AWAY IN MY FILTH!" vermin shouts.

He shoots a giant pile of garbage at Usopp but Usopp quickly rolls to the side. "Child's play" Usopp states.

Vermin growls angrily and raises his hands in the air, "I summon the forces of all that is foulness." He chants. Suddenly, sewer rats start crawling out of his body and star racing towards Usopp and are ready to pounce.

Usopp reaches into his bag and takes out a small bag of trail mix and tosses it over on the other side of the road. The rats stop in their tracks, and look at the trail mix, and going running towards the snack.

With Vermin caught off guard by this, Usopp launches a pellet filled with alcohol right at vermin's face.

It hits dead center in his face and the alcohol blinds him. "It hurts, it hurts!" he screams.

Usopp says "Hope you liked that, but now have a taste of this!" Usopp continues his onslaught of attacks as he shoots a small pouch of paralyzing dust at his opponent. Unfortunately, the paralyzing dust has no affect.

Vermin wipes the alcohol out of his eyes and shoots a concentrated blast of horrendous gas out of his mouth right at Usopp's body. The gas at first glance doesn't appear to do anything. But after a few seconds of inhaling it, Usopp falls onto his knees and is coughing up blood.

Vermin walks over to Usopp with a victorious look on his face. "Smell that? That is the power of my wretched gas breath. It is so powerful that it causes internal bleeding after only a few seconds of entering the body." Vermin states proudly. "Are you ready to die and rot away into nothing?" vermin asks.

Usopp looks up with a smug smile and already had his next shot loaded into his slingshot. "Only if your ready to endure the burning of a lifetime." Usopp says with a cocky tone as he shoots the pellet contained with a small pre-lit fuse.

It hits vermin straight in the face and in a flash his body bursts into flames as he screams in agonizing pain and falls to the ground. After a few minutes have passed and the flames have faded away. Usopp and vermin are laying motionless on the ground still twitching in pain and coughing up blood.

"How….how did you know to use that attack? Even after I told you fire attacks wouldn't work." Vermin asked. "How did you see through by bluff?"

Usopp chuckled at that. And explained "I knew you were lying the whole time, from the facial movements you were making and the look in your eyes. It's the same thing I do when I lie, so I know how to tell when other people are doing it."

Vermin still seemed confused "But I've been a liar for years, I've never had someone seem through my tricks before!" vermin states heatedly.

Usopp snickers at those words and states "You can't out-bullshit the ultimate bullshitter."

Vermin looks at Usopp with a stunned look, but then lightly grins. "I gotta give it to ya man, you got grit. I give ya my respect. Honor among liars, am I right?" vermin says.

Usopp's confident grin fades into a stern look. "No, we may both be liars, but there is no honor among your kind, you lie to harm and manipulate others. I lie to protect the ones I care about when the truth is not enough to keep them safe."

Off in one of the corners beside a building where Rachnera limped to during the fight, she spectated the entire thing as it happened. And those words stuck out to her the most "I lie to protect the ones I care about." She thought to herself. She says quietly "Perhaps there is more to this human than I thought."

After a few more minutes of Usopp lying there in pain, he eventually passed out, hoping that Rachnera made it to safety.