""Brave warrior of the sea" huh? That's quite a romantic of saying "sea-faring criminal"." Kuro said while wiping the blood off his face.
"You..." Usopp looks like he's just about to get pissed enought to kill the man.
"Hide it all you want, but I see through you. You're just like your father, trash...You're just after Miss Kaya's money, aren't you?!"
"What?! You-"
"I'm onto you. Like father, like son huh!"
"That's it!" Usopp shouted while grabbing Kuro's collar, readying another punch.
"Stop Usopp! Don't hurt him!"
Usopp froze, angry and conflicted.
"Klahadore's not bad...he takes care of me. He just...went too far..." Kaya weakly defended him.
"Leave...This is no place for some ruffian like you! Never come back here again!" Kuro said while shrugging off Usopp's grip.
"Ok then...I'll go. You'll never see me here again." Usopp said solemnly, turning his back and leaving through the front gate.
"Usopp, I..." Kaya muttered, her eyes watery.
The kids then felt the need to insult Kuro back and defend their leader's honor.
"Captain's great, smelly butt-ler!"
"Don't talk about our captain like that poop stained idiot."
"Stupid moron"
"Fuck you, poopy glasses." Luffy joined in, sticking his tongue and flashing Kuro his 2 middle fingers.
"Come on kids, time to leave." Nami said, while trying to rein in the kids.
"Easy, Luffy. Not time to fight yet." Zoro said, delaying Luffy in hurting the butler.
"All of you out!" Kuro shouted, urging the rest to start moving out.
"It's kinda ironic of you grilling Usopp's connection with his dad, while you walk around wearing the face of Kuro of a Hundred Plans." Zoro casually said while preventing Luffy from clobbering him.
Kuro immediately shut his mouth from that. Zoro then sensed some bloodlust coming from Kuro, to which he just smirked in return. He continued to leave with the crew and the kids, not even bothering to look back at Kuro.
"Show us to the beach then."
"Let's go, it's just right this way." The kids answered.
Zoro let Luffy have a private talk with Usopp, but after he saw Usopp sprinting towards the village, he knew that that was the cue.
The kids lead Zoro and Nami towards the beach where Usopp goes to mope whenever something happens. There they found Luffy sleeping, head down and ass up, a position virtually nobody would be able to sleep on.
Zoro shook Luffy awake. The latter then informed everybody of what he and Usopp heard, at least what he remembers of it.
"That weirdo is going to raid the village!"
"We have to tell them!"
"Usopp likely already told them what we just found out. And they're just as likely to not believe Usopp, much less any of us." Zoro explained.
"Why wouldn't they believe us?"
"Because Usopp is already known as the village prankster, you kids are his followers, and we're outsiders toured around by Usopp. It means we are more likely influenced by him, if weren't friends from the outside." Nami explained.
"Let's go find Usopp." Luffy ordered, and they searched around the village for sometime before they found him.
Usopp looked absolutely miserable when they found him. It was as if he was about to collapse any minute now. When he saw Luffy however, his face turned from depressed to dumbstruck.
"How are you alive?!"
"I'm made of rubber." Luffy said while pulling his cheeks far past the point of normal human cheeks' limit. "See?"
"I'm guessing by the look on your face earlier that you couldn't convince anybody huh?" Nami said, desperately trying not to show pity in her expression.
"So you guys already know?"
"Vaguely. Luffy's not the best at remembering details." Nami said complainingly.
"Captain, what are we going to do?"
"You guys are here! Um...Hahaha, I'm embarrassed to admit this, but...it's all a lie. I actually just got so pissed off by that shitty glasses that I just made up him being a pirate." Usopp lied, carefully hiding the bullet wound he received from Merry earlier. "You guys better go back home to your parents now, it's getting a little late for you guys."
"Captain...d'ya really think we'd fall for that?" Ninjin said.
"We've been following you for years now, that won't work for us Captain." Piiman said.
"We know when you lie Captain. This is our village to protect too!" Tamanegi declared.
"But...it'll be dangerous. We're going up against actual pirates here. You guys are kids, I can't put you guys in danger."
"You should probably give up, Usopp. They already know what's happening. Unless you plan to forcefully ground them while pirates are attacking, they're likely to try to help defend the village by themselves anyway. At least if they're included, you'd know what they're doing and can keep them off danger easier." Zoro reasoned.
"Okay that's solved. Now I just have to think of a way for me to beat their entire crew. Easy peasy!" Usopp sarcastically said.
"Of course, we'd help you." Luffy said as a matter of course.
"It'd make no sense sticking around otherwise."
"We get all the loot though."
"You guys...thank you."
"Don't sweat it." Luffy waved him off.
"Enough with the niceties. Usopp, you know the island better than any of us, where are they likely to dock?" Zoro said, directing the planning.
"Well, the island is safe enough to dock in most of the shores, but the island is surrounded by cliffs. There's only 2 passages carved by the village founders, 1 in the north where you guys docked, and 1 in the south, where we heard their plans. I was thinking they'll come from the south because that's where Kuro and that hypnotist met."
"That's too flimsy of a reasoning to risk my treasure getting stolen by those pirates!" Nami whined.
"Ok, so we split into 2, they said they'll attack at dawn, whoever encounters them first, try to hold them and make noise to signal the others. But even if whichever team don't hear any signals, wait a few minutes before running towards the other passage, the pirates might just be a few minutes late, or the other team might not be capable of sending any signals."
Usopp turned to the kids. "Usopp pirates, you have a different job. Ready our traps in the forest, and once the pirates make landfall, start making noise and wake up the villagers, but as much as possible, never come close to that butler. I don't think he'd just kill villagers with his own hands, since it seemed building rapport with them seemed important, but don't risk it. And if possible...secure Kaya's safety."
"Aye aye, captain." They all answered, and immediately ran in the forest.
"So what, can you guys actually do?" Usopp asked.
"I stretch."
"That's already self-evident, Luffy. He's also leagues above most pirates in terms of physical abilities. He's an instinctive brawler, but also an idiot that can be easily fooled and led to possible traps. His powers also come from a devil fruit, which makes him a hammer at sea." Zoro informed Usopp of Luffy's rough broad combat ability.
"I use a 3-part staff with some skill, and I'd say I'm a good enough thief. I can trick people relative easily, seduce men quite well, pick most locks quickly, and I'm pretty agile. But don't expect me to be fighting multiple guys though." Nami explained, giving far more in-depth information, influenced by Zoro's explanation for Luffy.
"I'm a swordsman that uses 3 swords. I have an ability called Haki, which currently gives me short-term precognition, and mystical energy that allows me to increase the durability of myself or things I'm touching, strengthen my attacks, disrupt Devil Fruit abilities, or even make barriers near me. I'll expand on it later but I think it'll be better if we focus first on the fight."
"Damn...well, after that I look even more underwhelming. I can use a slingshot to shoot pellets, rocks and other things. I've also made a bunch of gadgets, though I'm not sure if any of them would be helpful."
"Do you think you could do any modifications to Nami's staff that'll help her fight?"
"I don't know what I could even add with the time constraint? I could quickly make her a similar staff from steel. I could probably maybe make her staff discharge uncomfortable levels of heat or voltage...Maybe I could even use the new bubble soap I developed which could keep the heat and electricity from dissipating that will allow you to throw those at range. But those wouldn't even be capable of hurting anybody, much less incapacitate. Not to mention the bubbles are slow, once thrown."
"That's so cool Usopp!" Luffy beamed. "You're a great inventor. Please build me cool toys later too!"
"Well...I'm not really a great inventor. I'm more of a casual hobbyist really, but I guess I'm a pretty good at crafts." Usopp said, obviously feeling flattered by Luffy's compliments.
"Usopp, I'm gonna take you up in that offer." Nami said, the gears in her head obviously working on something. "I have an idea."