Usopp doesn 't quite know what to think.

'Usopp-san! I came to visit! '

Sandalled feet against the soft shores and a strong flutter of a sunhat against the wind, a cheery bundle of yellow bounces up in his direction.

Usopp leans against the wall of his house, a wooden plank between his lap and resting on his shoulder, and a few dozen piles of chopped wood sprawled all around him.

'Don 't step on the nails, Kaya, ' he warns.

In the corner of his vision, the yellow bounces a bit to the left, stepping daintily over the box of bolts before crouching down near him to inspect the little wooden cube in his hands.

'Kaya-ojou-sama, ' Merry calls from not too far away, 'three paces away, please. '

Yes Kaya, when someone is carving wood, you stay five steps away or get showered in splinters and whine

.

'Good morning, Kaya, Merry, ' Usopp greets, 'what brings you? '

He can

hear

Kaya pout from here. 'I came to visit! ' she says, emphasizing

the visit

in a way that means 'I came to play, obviously ', 'hey, what 're you making? '

Hell if Usopp knows. The wood started off looking like a brown blur, and right now? it 's just a smaller brown blur.

'Does it look like something? ' Usopp asks instead, holding it out so Kaya could take it. 'I 'm just practicing how to not cut myself while carving it, so I didn 't really think about the shape. '

Kaya takes it to inspect, and Usopp gestures dramatically at the piles of firewood around him.

'That aside, look at all this! ' he brags, 'you see yesterday, a big brown mountain ' bear, I think? that was two-- three-- ten! meters tall came down, saw me and he thought I was a tengu! So he chopped me a lot of firewood as an offering! '

'Really? ' Kaya asks, hopping forward those three paces again. 'That 's amazing! '

'Do people give offerings to tengu, usually? '

Usopp can almost imagine the exasperated grimace on Merry 's face. 'He huffs, opting to expertly ignore the butler, 'and yep! He 's coming down again to cook my dinners and keep my fires lit! '

Usopp 's current tactic to avoid babysitting aunts and uncles from the village (because no one in their right mind leaves a newly blind child to his house by the sea, alone) is to make up the wildest stories to get them too tired to question it.

Because sure as heck they won 't believe him if he says he 's making his own meals

blind

and handling himself with the experience of an adult that hasn 't been able to see for a long, long time.

He still has

some

babysitters though. They usually make sure he 's not dead, ask him about his day, cook him a few meals, then they go. Merry wrote his name on the volunteer roster (upon Kaya 's insistence) and today is his turn.

Kaya sounds like she 's going to jitter right out of her skin, 'then, can I stay the night and meet him? Pleeease? '

Usopp squawks, 'oh, no, no, you can 't! ' he panics, 'he 's uh-- uhhhh, ' his eyes dart around away from Kaya and then they close, 'shy around girls! '

Before Kaya can deflate and Usopp can spontaneously combust, Merry pats them both on the head to stifle the growing fairy tale.

'As interested as we are in Mister Mountain Bear, I will have to remind you Usopp-kun-- don 't talk to strangers if you don 't know who they are, ' Merry says.

Usopp hums. They think this imaginary bear is a man. Okay.

He hears the click of a pocket watch. 'Now then, Kaya-ojousama, and Usopp-kun. Shall we head to lunch? '

-

-

'So this is Momoiro Cafe ' oh! Koala-san! ' Usopp felt the need to bow as he greeted her, 'it 's nice to see you again! '

Retiring from piracy, Usopp had plenty of time to dabble. He taught the kids on Elbaf how to shoot. He found a legitimate Island of Snipers and had a lot of fun there. He claimed a few islands for himself and visited them every few months.

And most important of all, he joined the Revolutionary Army on a part-time basis.

'Sogesopp-san, did you come by to play? ' Koala says, sarcastic, but brimming with honest joy. 'Oh would you listen to this? Sabo-kun and I were on a mission-- '

Expertly, Usopp sat himself on the opposite side on the table, setting down his bag and leaning on the desk comfortably.

The agent he was talking to excused himself, and Usopp waved with a sheepish apology. A moment later, he was served tea in a pink and heart-painted cup. Almost comfortingly, he picked it up and took a sip, enjoying the warmth of peaches and roses.

'...Then when he showed up again he was holding the

prince

in his arms! Could you believe that?! ' Koala gesticulated wildly. 'The building was on fire and even though it was just a spying mission he went and blew everything up anyways! '

Usopp burst into laughter, 'I take it that's the new guy in the East Division that 's wearing the hat, right? Saw him on my way in. '

'That 's him! He 's doing a great job, but man, could Sabo

stop

adopting every troubled kid he finds? ' Koala complains, 'he idolises Sabo so much we just know he 's going to grow up into a pain in the ass. '

Usopp sips his tea.

'Well, he has to pass the baton somehow, ' he says. 'I can 't wait to see how the new generation ruins the world. '

'They 're terrible, ' Koala says, scowling fondly.

'No, ' Usopp says, 'they 're the

Worst

. '

Conversations like these were common now. Like old war buddies, Usopp sought solace in people of the previous generation, trying to get a semblance of closure in reminiscing.

'Sometimes, I wish we could go back to those times, ' Usopp says.

Koala smiles, a little sad, 'optima dies... prima fugit. '

The best days are the first to flee.

-

-

He sits on his bed, his stew cooking and his mind wandering.

Right now, he 's about thirteen years old, give or take a few months. He can 't read newspapers, so he can 't know the exact date. Days are a blur now that sunrise and sunset are hard to tell apart, especially if he takes a nap.

He does ask Kaya to read the news for him, though. Just to keep a lookout on the workings of the world.

What 's the plan? Is there a plan?

He needs a plan.

What should change and what shouldn 't?

Honestly, Usopp loved every moment of his journey, the bitter and the sweet, all of them. 'The only problem was what came after, the cruelty of their strength and the despair they all felt as they were picked off, one by one.

Why couldn 't they have a nice retirement life like Rayleigh?

The problem is the world.

Princess Nefertari Vivi loved her country. But her love for her country made her go obediently toward the execution platform. No one can say it was right to take her away from her throne-- but if she wasn 't on the throne, maybe she would have lived to see a daughter or a son take it from Kohza.

They have to hit the world harder than they did before.

(Is that even possible?)

Usopp laughs to himself. Is fighting the government seriously his calm-minded first choice? The old him would 've just gone to sleep crying for his I-can 't-blow-up-anymore-WG-flags-or-I 'll-die-disease.

He 's sure changed, hasn 't he?

I 'm so

' he ran a hand through his arm. Smooth, clean, but he remembers the place of each and every scar that ran through this very limb.

I 'm so ' wrong, right now.

He can 't be the Usopp that Luffy met. He can 't be that guy anymore-- the guy that was the weakest, was the wimpiest, yet was so irreplaceable.

Usopp can 't be that guy.

He has to be someone different. Someone

better

.

-

-

Nami 's covered in oil and grease and surrounded by nuts and bolts.

'Nami, straighten your posture, ' Nojiko chides.

Nami makes a whiny sound. 'But these things are heavy! '

Muscles are thick and ugly, but at this rate, she 'll need a toned figure just to handle walking around for more than too long. The long-term strain will also give her joint issues '

Even right now, when she wore her metal arm in a sling when she didn't need to use it. It was just too painful to hold it up for long periods of time, especially coupled with the muscle strain that came with each day trying to get used to it.

'You sure bought a lot of stuff this time around, ' Nojiko says. The house, usually smelling like fresh dew and oranges-- now it was filled with the slightly pungent odor of wax and oil. Not awful, just different.

'Sorry, Nojiko. Maybe I 'll keep them at Arlong Park inste-- '

'No, no, I didn 't say that, ' Nojiko interrupts, 'you can keep them here. '

Where had her tomboy little sister, delicate and so adorable, gone? She looks so at home among gears, robots, and machinery. She would smear a handful of ink on her face, or fall asleep among the soil, to the smell of oil.

It was jarring.

It 's like her lifelong dream of mapping the world has taken a back seat, and her priorities have sorted from map-money-beauty, to power-map-money, with the aforementioned beauty never to be seen again.

She now cares little enough about money that Nojiko gets a monthly bag of gold she can use to pay off their headcount taxes. Nojiko thought Nami was trying to save up.

How is she paying for those limbs, investing in Nojiko 's allowance, and saving up all at once? Where is she getting the money?

(Easy, she just isn't saving up anymore. She's using all she has.)

She still cared about beauty, though. Nojiko's seen her frowning at the mirror at a new set of acne or a new scar, but she didn't think there was time to deal with it in her schedule. She wasn't taking care of herself as often, not letting herself be pampered until she truly had a moment of real reprieve.

Someday, when this is all over (if that day ever comes,) Nojiko is going to drag Nami to a massage parlour. And a hair salon.

She leans against the side of the door.

Nami 's tattoo is in full view-- something Nami used to try her hardest to hide when Arlong wasn't looking.

And Nojiko hates it. It 's as if Nami is adapting, trying to become one of

them

by first numbing her heart. 'It 's as if the naive and innocent part of Nami, the Nami that dreamed of maps and whined after being caught stealing books-- it 's like it was all

lost

, along with her right arm.

This Nami is stronger-- so much stronger, tougher, and more resilient. So much, Nojiko holds back tears.

It's not necessarily a bad thing.

But is this still her Nami?

-

-

The both of us, we have to rely on our brains to survive.

Usopp had told her before, and it 's been her lifelong code.

You do what I can 't do, and I 'll do what you can 't do

. That 's something Sanji said-- it 's the general rule of the Strawhats, paraphrased from Luffy 's own rambles.

There 's not a soul in the crew that doesn 't love it.

Nami navigates. She keeps the crew going. That 's her job, and it 's been everything to her and her crew-- it 's the most important part, and it 's her pride. 'But this time, that 's not enough.

This time, she has to pull her weight even more. 'She has to be dependable.

She was the last to remain last time. It 's not because she was strong-- the strongest died first. She was the

last

because she was the coward, running and hiding.

What would adventure be without fun?

But what is adventure with only bitter aftermath?

'Hey, Bellemere-san, ' Nami says, looking out toward Bellemere 's grave and praying for more than her mother 's soul.

She put a hand on the grave.

'One day, I 'll get strong enough to defeat Arlong. And then we 'll all be free again, ' she promises. 'Then I might have to leave, but it 'll all be fine. '

Because this time, she can 't just be a damsel in distress.

'Watch over me until then, okay? '

-

Nami spent her post-retirement life in Fishman Island. She was a beaming icon for their interspecies relations, and picture books were made of their story.

Largely censored and sugared in, but it was the story that made a note in the world, showing people just how cruel both sides were, yet forgiveness was possible.

Fishman island was her home.

She even worked part time in Mermaid Cafe (she wasn 't a mermaid, but people loved her anyways) with Caimie, and helped out with Hack 's Fishman Karate lessons to the kids.

With a certain unexpected someone.

'Hey Bepo-chan, does Torao really not mind you coming by so often? '

The Polar Bear Mink straightened, then he nodded. 'Captain is hanging around Punk Hazard recently. Trying to find new things. They 're always on the fire side, but I 'm bad with that. So if I 'm here, they can stay there longer. Sorry. '

'You 're still apologizing a lot, ' Nami chuckled when Bepo followed with another apology. 'What about back at Zou? How 's Carrot doing? I heard she 's graduated from the Musketeers? '

Bepo nodded. 'Lord Nekomamushi and Lord Inuarashi are retiring, and we 're not too sure who to pick as a successor. All the votes right now are between Carrot, Pekoms, and ' me. Sorry. '

Nami perked up at that last one.

'Sorry! ' Bepo quickly covered up, flustered, 'I mean-- captain said he doesn 't mind but-- I 'm sorry. I 'm sorry-- I mean-- uh, sorry. '

Nami laughed.

'A human and a mink learning Fishman Karate, talking about how one of us is going to be Lord next week. ' Nami muses, 'a decade ago, this was unthinkable! Man, if Luffy saw this, he 'd be so confused, wouldn 't he? '

Bepo went silent at that.

'He 'd call me a mystery Polar Bear again ' '

Nami snorted.

'He definitely would! '

-

'Where 's Nami? '

'She just jumped into the sea. '

'Oh-- wait, WHAT?! ' Choo lurches forward in surprise. He swirls on Kuroobi, because

dude you could sound a little more like you care! That kid 's like fourteen! Or thirteen. A kid! A Human! Kid!

Plus, after Hachi kicked up a fuss about properly feeding the brat, there have been shifts on who looks after Nami and makes sure someone doesn 't accidentally punt her across the town on purpose. It 's currently Choo 's turn and he only looked away for two minutes, he swears.

Kuroobi scratches the back of his neck. 'I mean, she 'll be fine. She 's human, but she can swim, right? '

Choo kinda understands why Hachi kicked up a fuss now. All of these absolute morons need a lesson on the difference between fishmen and humans

again

.

'Nami has a metal arm, ' Choo grinds out, dashing toward the coast and trying to figure out if he should jump in, 'and that thing is heavier than two of Hachi 's swords, okay? Would you want to swim in the water with two of Hachi 's swords? '

There 's a pause.

Then, 'fuck, ' Kuroobi says, 'Hachi 's going to kill us. '

Choo explodes, 'I 'll kill you

first

! ' he yells.

The threat goes unfulfilled though, because the next second, Mohmoo surfaces, a certain orange-haired girl on his head.

Nami 's laughing. She 's the happiest anyone has ever seen in her, in like, ever.

For Choo and Kuroobi, a very unsettling memory rises-- and they shake their heads, dismissing it.

They chose to follow Arlong. No sense in being sentimental for

that

little girl anymore.

Drifting over with half his head above the surface, Mohmoo meekly delivers Nami to dry ground. He accepts a head pat, and then Nami bids him goodbye before he returns to his undersea nest.

Choo and Kuroobi just stare, wide-eyed.

'Nami, what were you doing under the sea? ' Kuroobi asks, sounding less antagonistic than he usually did towards her but he wasn 't in the state of mind for racist jabbing right now.

Nami swipes her bangs back.

Oh hey her hair 's getting longer.

'Huh? ' she notices the two as she picks up a towel at the side.

Isn 't that Hachi 's towel??

'I went for a swim. Mohmoo almost ate me, but I think he smelled the metal and decided I was unappetising or something. '

Mojmoo almost

WHAT?!

'I thought your limbs were too heavy to swim in, ' Choo says, 'they 're fine now? '

Nami shrugs, 'it 's shallow here," she assures them. And her comfort in talking to them is something that unsettles them greatly. She sin't even shrinking away when they step closer. "I can climb up when the situation calls for it. '

With the stairs along the edge of the shore, probably.

Deciding this conversation is over, she walks toward her room again, probably to get changed.

'Wait, Nami! ' Kuroobi calls.

When Nami turns around, he finds himself at a loss for words. Just two weeks ago this kid was still a cowering little girl just as pitiful as Koala had once been. But now? There wasn't a shred of fear in her figure. She looks them in the eyes, and handled herself daintily, not trying to look tougher than she was.

Just tolerance, and a professional sort of camaraderie.

Kuroobi trails off. 'It 's ' dinnertime soon. '

Nami nods. 'I 'll eat after. '

'No no no no nono, ' Choo interrupts quickly, 'No. ' Then when Nami looks at him weirdly, he goes, 'you 're eating on the same table. No Kuroobi, don't look at me, do you want Hachi to explode on us again? No? Okay. Nami? You heard me. '