Everyday Life with the Straw Hats
Author's notes: I'm finally back off my long hiatus, been busy with a lot of school and family-related things the last couple of months. But I'm hoping to get out more chapters on a regular basis. I really means a lot to me that so many of my readers have still been sticking around with my story even though I have had a bad habit of posting irregularly. I know there have been some people asking for me to make my chapters longer, but unfortunately that is just not my style of writing. I do better at writing shorter chapters that focus on 1 or 2 plot points at a time. I've tried writing long chapters before in other stories, but it becomes hard for me to keep track of everything. And again, I'm hoping to upload more to compensate for short chapters. Thanks again for everyone's continuous support!
Chapter 5: Liars And Spiders
As Usopp was walking through the streets to check on the thousand sunny, he heard shouting and the sound of various sounds of wood and metal banging against each other. "What on earth could that sound be? I better pick up the pace." Usopp began to break into a run to reach the ship. Once the ship was insight, he saw a group of thugs smashing metal pipes and crowbars against the side of the thousand sunny. They were none other than the Street badgers that Luffy and Miia encountered before.
"Hey! Leave that ship alone! Do you guys have a form of decency? You lowly punks!" Usopp shouted in rage. Usopp already had to endure losing the Going Marry, he wasn't going to let them damage the Thousand Sunny.
The thugs turned to face Usopp and started laughing at the sight of Usopp's nose. "What the hell is wrong with this guy, he looks like freaking Pinocchio! Let's see if that nose grows the more we pound him." The leader stated. They began to approach Usopp menacingly. Usopp knew he would have no trouble taking these guys on, he's dealt with much tougher opponents before. Usopp loaded his slingshot with a small pouch of marbles and launched them right at their feet. "Special attack: Rolling pain!" Usopp shouted as the sack of marbles burst open at their feet. Two of them moved swiftly out of the way, looking more confused than anything. The third one slipped completely on the marbles and fell face first on the pavement and busted his jawbone. Needless to say, he was out for the count.
"Damn it! You are gonna die now, flute-nose!" the third one took out a short knife and went full on running while shouting a battle cry. Usopp took advantage of his mouth being wide open and shot his signature Tabasco star right into his mouth. The guy started to tear up and cough, begging for water. Usopp grabbed one of his pocket hammers and chucked it right at his face while he was distracted by the heat in his mouth. The hammer had smashed him into a couple of crates behind them. it was down to just Usopp and the leader.
"You think you're a tough guy? Huh! Is that it?! I won't lose another fight to some random newbie on the street. You hear me?! I'm the king of the street badgers!" the leader grabbed a gun from his back pocket and pointed it right at Usopp. Usopp didn't have enough time to load in another shot into his slingshot. "I'm taking you out right here right now, got that?" he hissed at Usopp with sheer hatred. But as he started to pull the trigger, he got hit by something that neither Usopp or the thug could see. Before anyone knew what happened, the thug was pinned against a wall, covered in what looked to be some sort of sticky webbing. Usopp walked up to approach the substance, Usopp heard light footsteps behind him, when he turned around to see who is was. He was quite surprised to see a women with short light-purple hair, a nice figure to say the least, but most noteworthy was her spider-like lower body.
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.
Usopp started to wake up from the injuries he received with his battle against Vermin. He looked around and he was on the couch back at the house where they were staying. He mumbled to himself, trying to recall what happened after the fight.
"He's awake!" Chopper said sitting on footstool looking over him. Everyone else came into the room to see him. Usopp noticed that Rachnera was standing at the end of the couch watching him without any sort of expression on her face.
"What happened?" Usopp asked with pain in his voice.
"this Spider woman brought you here, and you were both badly injured." Chopper explained. "she had a gunshot in her shoulder and you were suffering severe internal bleeding. She saved your life." Chopper stated. "Luckily I was able to patch her up and treat your internal injuries with my medicine."
Usopp looked at Rachnera, confused by what Chopper told him. "You saved me? But….I thought you didn't care about humans like me." Usopp asked.
The rest of the straw hats looked at each other with a concerned face, Nami signaled them to leave the room, she could tell it was important that Rachnera and Usopp have a private talk.
"Lets give them some time to themselves" Nami stated. Everyone agreed and went to their own respective rooms.
After they left, it was just the two of them. Rachnera and Usopp, things were silent for a few minutes until Rachnera broke the ice. "That thing you said…during that fight. About being a liar…" Rachnera started, Usopp could see she was getting emotional over what she was trying to say. "You said you lie to protect those you care about…how can I tell if that's true!" she said, with tears of sorrow and anger running down her face. "Why should I believe that a human like you who admits to being nothing but a lying trickster?!" her tears were coming out ever harder now, and her voice was rising. "You say you lie for noble cause, but when things get tough or don't go as you planned, I'm sure you'll just abandon the ones who need you because that's all that liars are capable of!" Rachnera shouted, she turned away to hide her tears, but she finished her rant with the sentence "You're just like them….my old host family. I won't be tricked again."
Usopp looked incredibly worried and concerned for Rachnera. He was hesitant to ask about why she was so mad, but he wanted to try and help her. "W-What happened with your old host family?" he asked.
Rachnera wiped her tears, still not facing him. But she figured she at least owed him an explanation for why she was accusing him of being like them. "When I first came here, I moved in with a family that had a decent home, it was a married couple and their daughter, your typical image of a happy family. However, when they enrolled for the liminal exchange program, I'm sure they wanted someone more cute and cuddly, not someone like me. They tried to act all nice at first, but I could tell they didn't want me here at all, they were liars. And then one day, I accidentally harmed their daughter. That was the breaking point, that's when I was forced out. Ever since I have being living on my own throughout the city, doing as I please." Rachnera explained. Her tears finally stopped and she looked more serious and saddened by those memories.
"They didn't have what it took. They couldn't handle the 30%" Usopp stated, his face now stern and upset after hearing how that family treated her.
Rachnera looked at him, confused by his words. "What do you mean…30%?"
Usopp looked at her. He wanted to explain to her why he was different from that family, and why he could be trusted. " I am a liar, yes. I'm also a pathological coward in most cases. But," Usopp paused, taking a breath. "I know which moments matter the most. I may be a cowardly liar 70% of the time, but the other 30%, when things get serious and the choices you make matter the most in those circumstances, that's when I man up and take one for the team. I won't let my friends be harmed and I will die fighting to protect them. Those are the moments that define who you are, those 30% moments in life are the ones I know I have to live up to. Because If I ever want to achieve my dream of becoming a great warrior of the sea, I know that those precious moments that I call the '30%' are what truly define who you are. Just like when I fought Vermin earlier today, it wasn't just to protect me, it was also to protect you. That was one of those special moments in life. That was in the 30%" Usopp finished. From the look on Rachnera's face, he could tell she understood what he meant. "When your previous host family abandoned you after the accident, that was one of their significant moments in life, and they made the wrong choice." Usopp said, smiling at Rachnera, "You never leave anyone behind. That's what my friends have taught me."
Rachnera started to become teary eyed again, but this time, they were tears of happiness. She asked with a bit of a nervous tone, "Would I be allowed to stay here with you?" Usopp gave her a warm smile, "I'm sure I can work something out with Ms. Smith." He said.
Rachnera was pleased to hear that Usopp was welcoming her into their home to live there. She climbed on top of him and spun him up in her webs, she leaned forward just close enough to where they could feel each others breath. "Won't this be fun?" Rachnera asked in a seductive tone. "Now I can be your sexy spider mistress and you can be my webbed bundle of fun. Right honey?"