Illusions

He was a professional liar. There was no doubt. Not even Zoro or Robin could see through his lies, and they knew it. They only stared at him, wondering what secrets he had, but they never said anything. As a professional liar, he only lived through a facade, the identity of a cowardly person. An identity he had a long time ago created in order to protect himself. His mother had helped create it, herself living as the facade of a civilian woman. But in truth, she had never been a civilian at all.

"Never tell anyone your true self." His mother would often tell him with a bitter tone, the cheerfulness of her civilian facade in an instant gone. He never told anyone anything. It was like a dirty secret. Their bloodline, she had said, had been cursed a long time ago. A bloodline that only the World Government knew about - or at least the high ranks. A bloodline that they would prefer to end it other than permit it to live on. The sniper had lived around the island his entire childhood and the first years of his teenage years. Until Luffy, Zoro, and Nami had stumbled into the island, surprising him, and he had followed them in the chaos. After all, he could keep his facade forever. However, some observant people always surprised him even though they didn't know that he was keeping a facade. "Be strong before revealing who you are. It was what my mother would say to me when I was young." His mother had once told him before going to bed.

Illusions. Always make illusions. It was a saying in his family. Every person in his family had been born with gifts that anyone would kill to have. Even though he was pretending, he wasn't pretending when it came to his friendship with the crew or the hobbies he did. Usopp certainly didn't like lying to his friends, however everybody had secrets, and not everyone could pretend to be the most trusted person. He trusted the crew to a certain extent. But not with his secrets. They were strong, but not strong enough.

Strongness in his weakness

Illusions require a certain level of mental strongness. He could easily pretend that he was the most cowardly pirate, however it was all for the show. Mentally, he was built to be strong. Usopp had mostly trained his mist gift other than his other gifts - such as the sniper gift and the drifting gift. While he was particularly strong physically, he could use his mist gift easier than fighting hand by hand with someone. With illusions, it was easier to make people believe what he wanted them to see. His friends were strong. But not strong enough to notice the change of perception.

His mist gift, his mother had had it when she was still alive, and she had been a good user. He was decent at it, but it still could be trained to become stronger. His sniper gift was a combination between his father's raw talent and his mother's raw talent, a gift that had not been heard for a century at least. Usopp could use any weapons and be good at them, he could build any weapons, and he could combine them to make them deadly. Creativity was his strongest point, it helped him through the process of getting stronger. Usopp knew how to make poison and use it. He was a resourceful person, something that people had yet to notice.

Gifts were to be developed no matter what. They were raw at the beginning, then they were deadly at the end. Potential was something that people often forget.

Piracy

Becoming a pirate was an evidence. He always wanted to be a pirate like his mother had been to a certain extent - because in fact she hadn't been really a pirate - and like his father, the current Chaser, heir of a bloodline that even the World Government seemed to have forgotten - or they would have put a larger bounty on his father's head.

Monkey D. Luffy or Straw Hat Luffy as the papers called him, was a loud young man with a big dream - becoming the Pirate King, which was being the most free person. He was strong and well-trained with his Devil fruit even though Usopp could see the still undiscovered raw potential in his captain and friend. He wasn't particularly smart, but he could be in his own ways. The pirate was impulsive, a fan of meat, and a fun person to be around. Roronoa Zoro was the first mate, the green-haired young man was possibly one of the oldest of the crew. He could use three swords at the same time. His fighting style was terrifying. The man wanted to be the best swordsman in the world. Like Luffy, the mist user could see it happen. Quiet, sleepy, and often lost, Zoro was a fan of swords and intended to fight one day the current best swordsman of the world. Nami was the navigator, she kept an eye on the budget making sure that they had enough money. She fought with a weapon he had built. Nami liked to spend time on her transat. Her dream: mapping the entire world. Franky, the cyborg, was making his body useful for fighting. His recruitment had been ridiculous. He often worked in the workshop with Franky. And the cyborg was the one to build their current ship. Nico Robin was an observant woman, who liked to read a lot and wanted to learn about the real history of their world. Then, there were Tony Tony Chopper, Brook - their latest addition - and Sanji in the crew. The first one was the doctor with the dream to heal all diseases and become the best doctor - the concurrence was rude with the current Surgeon of Death, who was rumored to be an excellent doctor. He was the youngest. And he wasn't human. He was a reindeer that had eaten a Devil Fruit. Sanji was the cook, the blond-haired young man fought hand to hand with the enemies. He wanted to find All blue. Finally, there was the musician. Brook was the oldest of the crew, having been part of another crew before his 'death' (but in fact, he had eaten a Devil Fruit that made him go back to life with a skeleton body). His dream? To see someone again.

His crew was small, but effective.

Sabaody Archipelago.

What a mess.

It was supposed to be their last stop before going to the New World, instead it was there in which Defeat had come. Their two new friends, a mermaid and a starfish, had met them some days before their arrival on the archipelago. Then, the crew had saved a Gyojin. They had sailed to Sabaody together. The archipelago was known to hold human auctions. It was common to see Tenryuubito with their slaves going to auctions. With knowing that risk in mind, they had all gone to the Amusement park. However, the identity of the Gyojin and the mermaid was discovered. The mermaid, as the rarest bred to be sell into slavery, was captured. From this kidnapping, the crew with Hatchan's help had come to rescue of Camie.

In the end, they succeeded. But Luffy had punched one of the Tenryuubito, which had caused the arrival of an Amiral. The Defeat. Even with the temporary alliance with Captain Kid and the Surgeon of Death, Trafalgar Law, it wasn't enough to get away from the mess. Pacifista had been deployed in order to terminate them or capture them. They met their Defeat in the form of a Shichibukai, the one who had let the scientists make copies of him.

In the end, they had been separated.

Usopp had woken up on a deserted island. There was no one there. Not anymore. The island was the former inhabitation of a fallen tribe. The tribe of Forest had died a century ago. Their home was in ruins. The Forest itself seemed to be alive despite that no one was there.

The island

The young pirate was standing on the edge of the cliff, looking at the waves crashing down on the island. In three days. But it's impossible. He had discovered that the island was located in the New World. Or it would be for a few years at least.

The world only had one official language: Japanese. It was used differently according to the islands, therefore there was no standard - except perhaps for the government - as the different islands used different dialects. It wasn't common to find other languages, considered as minor languages, such as English, which was used in the newspapers and for the bounties. The tribe of Forest had been completely isolated. They had spoken a language called the sing-of-the-forest, however they had learned Japanese in order to understand the rest of the world and the lingua franca ; Mélodie.

Usopp was passionate about languages. In his free time, he loved reading ancient languages and learning different languages.

He turned his back to the ocean and started moving towards the large forest. There were large trees with green and red leaves. At the center of the island, there was the ruins of a city. All buildings were still standing. There were vines, grass, and moss everywhere. Usopp had set up a camp inside of the larger building in one of the safest zones.

He began exploring the island once more, following his instincts as something was calling him. The place felt strange. As if something or someone was watching him as he went down to the main cave behind the most beautiful house. He put a foot on the first step of a gigantic stone staircase, and then he went downstairs, letting his gaze wander around him. Down the cave, there was a big room with nothing but statues and a carving on the ground. There was a circle with written words, all seemed foreign to him - as he tried to wrap his mind around them - on which he was standing.

Finding food was easier than building a boat from scratch. He wasn't Franky. He knew basic things about navigation. He wasn't Nami. And he was in the New World.

"Fuck." He swore, sitting down on the stone carving as he stared at the ceiling.

The winds of the West raise, the voices of the East sing, the instruments of the South play, and the hums of the North resonate… Dark voices spoke as he suddenly felt uneasy. The pirate looked around him. He shivered. The words entered him, but he couldn't really understand. Blackness filled his vision, his head turned, and he fell unconscious.

Confusion

Usopp slowly opened his eyes, yawning as he rolled over his back in order to sit up. Instead of feeling the hard stone, he felt the grass brushing his skin. He suddenly became aware that something was wrong.

The atmosphere was different from what he knew. There was something that screamed at him that everything was different. There wasn't the smell of the sea, considering that the cave he had fallen asleep in - or unconscious - was near the ocean. The pirate stood up. There was no time to waste. He looked around him and realized that he was in a sort of park. There were trees smaller than he had already seen, benches, and paths throughout the park. He brushed his clothes as he started moving around, making sure to not make a sound. The sky was the same old sky he knew. The sun was shining over the place. There was a cool air chilling. He quickly arrived at the edge of the place.

There were strange vehicles driving down the road that separated him from the other side of the park. He frowned as he watched the passers-by, all of them wore different clothes. Usopp stayed in the shadows, preferring watching rather than trying to walk around. Fuck this shit. He thought as he observed the different people. First they were speaking languages he hadn't heard of, wearing different clothes he would never have thought that it was possible, and thirdly, they all stared at him with weird looks. Was he really the weird one?

Did someone kidnap him and dump him in an unknown country? He narrowed his eyes. It seemed unlikely. In the next hours, he searched thoroughly the town he was in.

Thanks to his dedication to languages and linguistics in general, he quickly learned a few words in the language the local was talking. The strange vehicles he kept seeing were similar to those Franky built - or drew on paper - in the workshop of the ship. They were called cars, buses, and motorbikes. Words that perhaps existed in Japanese. Or at least, the version he knew of. Apparently, Japanese existed in this place, except that people spoke differently. It was really different from the four seas and grand line dialects and accents. Usopp had walked into a bookshop by simple curiosity - and mostly because it could hold information that would help him around. While he couldn't quite understand what he was reading, the images helped a lot. The pirate had found a book with maps all around the world.

He had concluded that he wasn't in his world anymore.

"Fuck." He swore as he couldn't still wrap his mind around this fact.