Kaya has known Usopp for nearly a decade.

At first, she had only approached him out of curiosity. Who wouldn 't? The village blind kid, living alone yet he was brave and strong and so oddly independent.

She had been hiding behind his house, peeking in to see what the boy was doing, (he was painting! And it was so cool!) and she was so sure she didn 't make any noise, yet the boy knew where she was, and even

who

she was.

The boy 's eyes never met hers-- couldn 't, because he can 't see well-- but Usopp always listens to her when she talks about her day. So in return, she listens when he tells her about these strange, magical stories.

(And just a little, she falls in love with those stories, this routine, and this habit.)

Usopp was probably the first friend Kaya made willingly. Of course, her parents encouraged friendship with other smart children in town, but in the backwater village of Syrup, she couldn 't make friends stick. So Usopp was her only real friend.

(And she loved it.)

-

( 'And so, full of tears and burning with regret, the man ran back. Each step hurt him more and more, but no! He couldn 't let this stand! ')

( 'And with a face full of shame He told them-- no. I am not your hero. I lied to you-- everything about me was a lie-- my lineage, my ideals, even my name was a lie! ')

( 'But that wasn 't it all. He drew his weapon, and he declared to them-- I will not turn around! I wasn 't the hero you wanted. So now, I will become the hero you need! ')

-

(She always wondered, though, how Usopp could describe things in such vividity, when he was blind? He painted the most beautiful pictures in her mind, and cast the most illustrious stories into her heart. She can 't help but love it.)

The vegetable trio loved the story of the cowardly warrior who became a legend. They always hate him at the start, and then start crying near the end.

It 's the only story Usopp ever told in third person.

Every other story, Usopp would speak as if he were the one to experience those adventures-- the large fish dump island. The century-long competition of the two warriors. Each one of these were clearly lies, yet Usopp daringly pretended he was the warrior in those stories.

It was a little terrible, but so charming in the children 's eyes. Kaya allowed herself to enjoy this.

But the cowardly warrior-- who is this man, that Usopp dared not project himself into?

-

'Miss Kaaaaya! '

She sticks her head out the window in time to see the Veggie brigade hustle in tearfully.

The next lines were probably a jumbled mixture of 'captain, captain ', 'pirates, witch, demon hag that eats humans ', 'cannibals, ' (that word was abnormally clear,) 'buggy got eaten, eaten, got buggy ', and whatever else. She 's getting good at deciphering their simultaneous speech.

She leans over her window, giggling. 'Tamanegi-kun, why don't you explain it instead. '

In the garden, Merry is gleefully tending to the garden. Her mother is in the hall, crocheting, and her father is in the kitchen.

'CAPTAIN 'S A CANNIBAL!! '

Cue the sounds of glass shattering.

Kaya facepalms.

'AHHH! They 're coming! They 're coming this way! '

The kids are running the endless circle of panic around Merry, and Merry is desperate to find out if the master hurt himself in the kitchen when he dropped that cup, and in the distance, Kaya

knows

her mother is cackling.

She sighs.

-

Kaya meets Usopp 's friends.

(He hasn 't left the island ever since he was born. There 's no logical reason he would have friends from outside the island. It just doesn 't make sense.)

(

'The boy with the straw hat who 's always full of smiles. The green-haired swordsman with three swords at his belt. The orange-haired burglar cat who loves money more than people. '

)

She stops short, taking in the appearances, so congruent, so right, so perfect like the last piece of a puzzle.

(

'And the little cowardly warrior was always behind them, lame in comparison. '

)

Oh. She looks at Usopp, who 's waving in her direction.

Oh

.

Kaya smiles. Casting one mildly curious glance at the admittedly interesting group behind Usopp, Kaya climbed over the windowsill, hopped onto the branch-- and jumped down.

'Usopp-san! '

Usopp lets out a surprised squawk, but Kaya already knows his arms are spread to catch her. Usopp has never dropped her before. He 'll definitely yell at her, though.

(She ignores Merry 's frantic screaming in the background.)

'Wait, Kaya! ' here it comes.

Usopp snatches her beautifully into his arms and sets her down, because he panics and he flushes easily, but he 's incredible and, in no known way at all, lame.

Once he affirms that the girl is safe, he flusters. 'You can 't just-- why would you-- god how many times do I have to tell you

no--

'

Kaya takes the chance to get a good look at his companions, and their surprised faces.

The ginger-headed girl smirks at her, and Kaya musters the sweetest smile she can whilst purposefully staying exactly where she is, with her arms wrapped lazily around Usopp 's neck and Usopp 's hands firm at her waist.

(Mother always said you have to claim your territory strongly, and Kaya has always been a mommy 's girl.)

'Who 're you? ' the one with the straw hat asks.

'It 's very nice to meet you, ' she says. 'I take it you 're Usopp-san 's friends? '

'Oh they 're just-- ' Usopp straightens, urging Kaya to let go. He turns briefly to them, 'the rude and loud one is Luffy. The green one is Zoro, and the girl is Nami. '

Zoro makes a rightfully offended remark (what do you mean

the green one

) and Luffy laughs. Kaya smiles, because they seem like good people.

Usopp 's built the habit of pointing out the most obvious traits in people to distinguish them, and more often than not they offend people. He says he 's trying to work on it, but Kaya reckons he just likes to see people get angry.

'--well, new recruits of sort. They wanted a new ship, so do you think we could give them the Going Merry? ' he turns to Merry, where the three kids have taken to hiding behind as if the man was a well-placed clothes rack of camouflage.

Kaya blinks, 'the Going Merry? ' she asks.

That 's a recently built (two years ago) ship, made to be taken alongside her father 's Sloop on their business trips-- but they 've deemed the ship a little too small for the work and it 's been left aside for Usopp to occasionally take on his trips to Baratie.

He never did, though. Usopp loved that caravel so much.

And he 's giving it to these people?

(Ah, that could only mean one thing.)

She couldn 't help the saddened look on her face, but she bloomed into a smile. 'Of course you can! Right, Merry? '

Merry flusters, looking like he has a lot to say-- but Kaya knows that there 's more confusion than denial in his splutterings. They 've agreed long ago that Usopp can do whatever he wants with the ship.

Kaya steps toward the three of them, greeting them with a polite bow.

'Luffy-san, Zoro-san, and Nami-san, was it? ' she says, 'my name is Kaya. It 's nice to meet you. '

-

Kaya 's known for a while that Usopp 's heart wishes to be a pirate. He doesn 't exactly hide it-- all his stories are of great voyages that can 't be legal. He plays pirate with three kids and they love it, but Usopp 's heart is serious.

And Kaya 's known for a while that Usopp isn 't as kind as she thinks.

She 's known since the day Khlahadore died in their basement, presumably from a medical complication because they just couldn 't detect the cause.

They were sad, but Usopp was dismissive about it.

Usopp stayed in his house and worked on a collapsible three-piece staff, and Kaya pretended not to notice the five-pointed slingshot in the corner of the house.

There 's no proof, but deep down, she just knew.

A while after that, Tamanegi found a bounty poster for Black Cat Captain Kuro, and all the questions in her heart were answered.

Kaya cried herself to sleep, and then the next day, she just wanted to know

more

.

Usopp never tells her more.

She 's bitter, but she 's fine. Usopp has his reasons and if there 's anything that she knows, it 's the fact that Usopp never wants to hurt her.

-

She catches Kinoko on her arm, and carefully shows it off to Luffy. Apparently, he 's made of rubber! That sounds like something right out of Usopp 's stories, and Kaya would be fascinated if he weren 't drooling.

Eventually, the boy and the bird engage in a heated staring contest. They must be on a similar wavelength, then.

Usopp and Nami have left for the town, apparently needing to stock up and pack for the journey, and Usopp is showing her around.

The green-haired swordsman is asleep in the corner, and the Vegetable trio are carefully prodding at the sleeping lion with the longest stick they can find. Occasionally the swordsman bolts up with a roar, and they dash away screaming.

A minute later, the three stooges come back with a longer stick. Just to try again.

'Oh, it 's on, you bird! ' Luffy yells at her, and Kaya 's attention is drawn back to the exchange.

Kinoko makes an angry caw-- but it 's more of a rivalry caw than a hostile caw.

Luffy points in a random direction. 'You think you can fly better than me? Well I 'll race you over there! '

Kinoko makes a very evidently scoffing expression in response. Kaya never knew the bird could ever make such a smug face.

Are they ' communicating?

Immediately, Kinoko flaps her wings, hovers in the air for a moment. Luffy turns around and stretches his arm out to hold at the gate, positioning himself like a large slingshot.

Then they give Kaya a synchronous glance.

'Uh, ' she stumbles, 'ready, set. Go? '

They literally shoot off at the speed of light. There 's a faint yell that sounds like 'rocket '(!!!) from the boy, and Kinoko is zooming ahead in the same manner she always does when she finds a mouse at the corner of the house.

Kaya doesn 't know what to do, she 's never been in such a stupefying situation.

'Uhm, be careful, ' she reminds into the air.

Whatever this situation is, she 's glad that Usopp might actually fit

right in

with these crazy guys.

-

-

It 's strange, how Usopp and Nami always find it so easy.

She doesn 't want Usopp to leave her sight for even a second. She 's clingy like that-- selfish, possessive, and her crew is

hers

.

If Usopp 's noticed her Haki clutching around him, maybe he just ignored it. She can feel his, much more versatile Observation, wrap around her too, like a thick fluffy cloud they just can 't break away from, but it 's so soft and comfortable she 'd wear it to sleep.

They slot themselves into a bar first.

Get a drink, and the conversations come easy. They reminisce on drinking habits, divulging into the third annual discussion of whether Nami actually has a liver or not.

They don 't get drunk.

Instead, they leave quickly after planning their shopping list, then they get a donut to snack on. Lugging behind them bags of groceries and tools on a trolley, they reminisce about the bubble bags in Sabaody.

Usopp doesn 't need to tell her anything. Nami just watches him, and she knows.

Usopp had walked into the store and asked for the things he needed. The shopkeeper had patiently walked around to gather the bolts, nuts, and screws for him.

If there was anything Nami knew, it was the fact that Usopp loved to choose his own supplies. There was novelty in picking out the best of the batch on your own, and Usopp was just superstitious like that.

He walks barefooted on the stone pavement. His eyes never look at her-- they blink a little less often than she knows eyes are meant to.

Nami has studied human behaviour for ages. She knows what this means. She knows what this means about Usopp.

(Tell me it isn 't true.)

(...It is, isn 't it?)

The pain just bubbles in her throat, but she can 't do it yet. Not yet. She lets the burn sear into her throat and hurt her, hurt her, hurt her.

That 's it.

And it 's the moment they walk to the mouth of the forest, to where she knows Usopp 's old house is. She just stops, and she can 't help the tears.

Usopp turns around, and there 's just a mutual

knowing

that sinks in.

Something in her breaks.

'I 'm, ' she chokes out, and Usopp 's already stepping forward to give her a hug. She cries. '

I 'm sorry

. '

(I 'm sorry

sorrysorrysorry

I 'm

so so sorry

)

Usopp holds. Holds her tight, feels every bit of her shivering, of her snivelling, and he just wraps his arms tighter around the girl and

waits

.

'It 's not your fault, ' he says, and he repeats, 'it 's not your fault. '

Nami doesn 't believe it for a second.

(

It 's because I wasn 't there. It 's because I left you behind left everyone behind because I was so scared I didn 't bother I just assumed it was fine and and and

)

'There was nothing you could have done, Nami. '

(

I should 've been there even if I couldn 't.

)

'None of us did anything wrong. We did our best. '

Nami cries anyway. Buries her fingers into Usopp 's back and sobs, trying not to be loud about it. Breathes quickly and sniffles and squeezes her eyes painfully shut.

She feels Usopp rub soothing circles into her back, and clutches closer.

And suddenly, the anger is back again. The fury twisting in her throat, she bites her lip down hard.

Then Usopp pulls apart slightly

(no no no come back)

and puts a hand under her chin. She stares back at those eyes-- those mildly unfocused, and upon closer look, just a little murky in colour-- and she turns away.

'Marines? ' he asks first, and Nami takes a moment to realize he 's referring to her arm.

She shakes her head, then realizes something. 'No, not the marines, ' she says, 'bounty hunters. They were a sick bunch. '

Usopp 's brows furrow. 'Your foot too? '

Nami blinks once, 'you can tell? '

Usopp 's frown only deepens at that, so Nami answers with a hum into his shoulder, getting back the contact and the warmth she needed.

They stay like that for a moment. Nami can 't see Usopp 's expressions, but she can feel just slightly with her Haki that Usopp has a similar monstrous churn of emotions inside him. It can 't be pleasant, but what ever is?

'What about you? ' Nami asks, and she hates how her voice cracks.

She feels the tears coming again and she hates it. She 's past the point of crying now-- she promised a lifetime ago to live with a smile on her face. What is she

doing

?

Usopp doesn 't answer her. The pained look is answer enough.

She reaches up a shaky hand toward Usopp 's face, and lets the palm cup his cheek. She looks up once, and she fights against the tears again.

'Where was I? ' she finally makes out the words and it 's not the first question she intended to ask.

(

Where was I when they did this to you? How could I not have been there?

)

Usopp 's chest lowers in a sigh. He leans, just a little, into her palm. He keeps his arms around her, and he doesn 't smile.

'You were

safer

, ' he chooses his words carefully, 'and that 's all that matters. '

Nami 's situation was just like hell. So Usopp could only be in one other place, and Nami can 't help but hate hate

hate

herself again.

She buries her face into Usopp 's shoulder, and though she doesn 't cry this time, she doesn 't move from there.

She stays there, not thinking about anything, not talking about anything. She just stays and listens and feels and they 're both

breathing

and that 's all that matters now.

(That 's all that matters now.)

(It 's not fine, but it will be.)

-

Nami pulls the trolley of materials with her metal arm, her other arm looped around Usopp 's. If Usopp was bothered by it, he didn 't let it show at all. He just shrugged his own bag of items over his other shoulder, and continued his way toward the house.

'You 've gotten stronger, ' he says, and it 's like the words are strangled out of him.

Nami gives her arm a light glance.

If anything-- she 's gotten weaker. It 's obvious-- she 's two limbs down, a few years back in physique, and a couple months out in Haki. She 's far from her prime, and that 's not surprising considering they 're younger now.

They 've really trained religiously for as many years as they could, but somehow, something 's just weaker either way.

Instead, she puts a hand on Usopp 's bicep.

'You too, ' she says. 'God-- we don 't need two muscleheads on the ship. You taking after Zoro now? '

Usopp sighs theatrically, 'what can I say, living so many years on the same ship as that trainoholic, it 's contagious. '

Nami laughs anyways. 'I guess one sad thing about this arm is that my Happiness Punch would be worth a little less. '

Usopp grimaces, '

please

, none of us ever liked it when you do that. '

'Remember that one time in Wano? '

'God, that was a

disaster

. It actually seemed like it was going to

work

, and who did it work on? Sanji. What the hell was he doing in there? Actually, I don 't wanna know. '

'Well, he

did

say he wanted to be an invisible man for a

rather

specific reason ' '

'Dear lord. '

Usopp flicked the lights on in his house.

'There 's nothing much I need to grab. Just clothes, a toolbox, and of course, ' he stepped over the carpet and pulled out a blue object, tossing the three pieces over his shoulder. 'Your one and only. '

Nami snatched her Clima Tact out of the air, and she swoons.

It 's the basic model, her very first. No dials, no Pop Greens. That 'll change soon.

Nami may have made her first Sorcery Clima Tact on her own, but it was made from a rendition of the previous model. The concept and beauty of the Clima Tact came from none other than Usopp himself, and she 's always loved it.

She tried to make it herself, with Jozu and Haruta 's help on the Moby Dick. Hilariously enough, they managed to make a large cloud-making machine with the concept. It was a disaster for Namur 's sanity, but they never could figure out how to compact it well enough to weaponize it efficiently.

Usopp 's creative, out-of-the-box thinking was something abnormally unique he had even back in the East.

So Nami stuck with her usual three-piece staff with no enhancements. It just didn 't feel right.

'I missed it, ' she admits quickly, a bright smile on her face, 'I never really understood how you made them so compact without dials. How 'd you do it without Grand Line tech, though? '

Usopp huffs proudly. 'It 's because I 'm the Great Captain Usopp, craftsman of the Pirate King 's ship! Of course I can do anything. '

Nami humours him with a dry laugh. 'Ha, hah. Now c 'mon, grab your slingshot. Let 's go. We 've got business before we go back, right? '

And Usopp does. They leave their luggage in the house, and step out with their weapons in hand.

Standing side by side, confident smiles on their faces-- for a blissful moment, it 's as if they were in the future again, the cowardly duo facing an opponent due to an unfortunate coincidence and unlucky matchup.

It 's nostalgic.

'Y 'know, what would you have done if I was still the me in the past? ' Nami asks, nodding her head toward the assembled staff before realizing Usopp can 't see it, 'with the Clima Tact, I mean. '

Usopp hums, 'I 'd probably hide it? Then give it to you when you ask for a weapon or something. No offense, you would 've been

dangerous

if I gave this to you before Lufy beat up Arlong. '

Nami snorts. 'You could give it to Luffy. Remember the time he stole Sabo 's pipe and straight-up socked Dragon in the face for being 'a meanie '? '

Usopp groans, 'yes, he shaved a good thirty years off of my life that day. And no, you would

kill

me for giving you Luffy 's hand-me-downs. '

Nami hums, 'ah you 're right. ' Then she spins the pole around a few times, doing a spin and practicing a bojutsu kata. Straightening, she huffs. 'Perfect. I 'd like it a little heavier, though, and longer. '

'Already making demands? What a slavedriver. '

'Hush hush. You 're my mechanic, aren 't you? If you want me to do it myself I 'll charge you for my time, effort and resources. On a 300% interest. '

'Wow, what about my payment for making it in the first pl-- I KNOW THAT THING IS SPINNING NAMI I 'M NOT FALLING FOR THE MIRAGE TEMPO AGAIN GET BACK HERE '

The comedic playout is interrupted when Usopp tenses. Nami straightens, because she knows Usopp 's Haki stretches further than she can imagine and it 's only gotten further since the last time she 's seen him.

Usopp steps back once just in time for a rubber body to

slam

into the sand, sinking in like a screaming meteor and burying himself into a hole as he lands.

Nami resists the urge to facepalm.

Usopp looks up and raises his arm to receive his bird friend Kinoko as it arrives. ' 'Hey there girl, what 's up with you? ' he asks the bird, because it 's (she 's?) breathing like she 's run a marathon. Do birds run marathons?

On cue, Luffy bursts back to life with an explosion of sand.

'HAH! ' he says, head spinning around before his gaze locked on the bird, and he has that competitive glint that he always wears when he fights stupid fights, 'I won! '

Kinoko makes an offended squawk, flapping her wings angrily. Evidently, she disagrees with that verdict.

'What? I obviously got here first! You were smelling my dust! ' Luffy throws his hands into the air.

Nami sighs, 'Luffy, the phrase is 'left in my dust ', not smelling, ' she says, but Luffy is growling like a feral animal at the bird so he 's probably not listening.

Finally, Luffy turns accusingly to Usopp, 'Usopp! You saw right? I got here first! '

Usopp is silent for a moment.

Then he juts out, like he 's kind of appalled, 'oh yeah. Certainly. Definitely. '

Luffy balks, 'that 's the tone Shanks uses when he absolutely doesn 't believe me! ' he whines. He turns to the bird, and the bird is grinning smugly. 'Damn you, you bird! I 'll roast you! '

Nami thinks this is fucking hilarious. That bird has a future in being an annoying little shit, and Nami volunteers to be the mentor.

Her Observation Haki picks up a presence, and she looks up to find ' oh, not this guy again.

(Usopp said he dealt with Khlahadore long ago, but the rest of his crew were still on standby with orders to return in three years. That 's today.)

She spins her staff around, and knocks it against the straw-hatted boy 's head. Luffy is completely unfazed, but his attention is grabbed.

'Alright Luffy. You can fight Mushy later, okay? We 've got trouble, ' she says, pointing toward the sea with her other hand. She ignores Usopp when he clarifies the bird 's name.

Luffy follows the pointer, and there 's a man at the shore, wearing a horrendous suit, a terrible hairstyle, weird heart-shaped sunglasses, and of course he 's walking like a total unoriginal moron.

Jango turns to them, and he snaps, 'what 're you looking at? I 'm just a passing hypnotist, nothing special, nothing suspicious, nothing to see here. Shoo. '

'Who 's that idiot? ' Luffy says.

'Hi there, ' Usopp interrupts them. 'Mister Jango, the hypnotist? I assume you 're here to look for your captain, Mister Black Cat Kuro. '

Jango stills for a short but very obvious second, then he sputters like the most

convincing

liar in the world. 'Wha- What are you talking about? I don't know any man like that! I 'm just a passing hypnotist. Please excuse m-- '

He goes silent.

Nami has his Den Den Mushi in his hand.

'It says Kuro on it, wow, ' she feigns, 'I wonder who it is. There 's a skull and crossbones on it. You must be a pirate crew then? But what would a pirate crew do in this backwater village? Aha. ' She clicks her fingers and whistles in fake surprise, 'are you after the pretty rich lady in the mansion? '

Jango startles dramatically, ironically entirely honest, 'oh no! They found out about Operation Assassinate Ojou-sama! '

Nami tries really hard not to laugh. Usopp looks like he wants to kill this guy yesterday.

Luffy looks back and forth between them. Then, 'wait, you 're trying to kill Usopp 's girlfriend?! '

'She is NOT my-- '

Jango quickly whips out his bladed pendulum. 'You leave me with no choice. I 'll have to make you forget everything! Now look here, and in three second you will-- '

WHACK!!

Usopp bashes him in the eyes with the hilt of his Kabuto, shattering the sunglasses.

'What a waste of time, ' he mutters, turning away. Kinoko, at some point, has moved from his arm to settle on his head. 'I found them, Nami. They 're on the South shore. Let 's go. '

Luffy stares, awestruck for a moment.

Then Luffy makes a pouting, sad sound, poking at the fainted hypnotist, 'but I wanted to see what he was gonna do! It looked cool. '

'Don 't be stupid, Luffy, ' Nami says, 'wanna come with us? '

'Huh? Where 're you going? ' Luffy asks, tilting his head to the side.

Nami grins, 'somewhere fun. '