Chapter Eleven

Usopp himself doesn't seem like a bad enough person, and Monalisa herself finds a genuine laugh bubbling from her lips from the long nosed sniper's reaction to Luffy's many stories of Yasopp. Monalisa notices how expressive he is - something that she notices reminds her of Luffy - and how his heart is worn on his sleeve. Not many people are like that in this world or the one before, but it is so much more prominent here.

Maybe it had something to do with the more violent and untrustworthy this world and its people are from the one before. Don't get her wrong, in her past life she has witnessed how shitty the life there was, but this place was more than different in appearance to the world before. It was on a whole other level when it came to just about anything - including the morality of people.

So it was really nice to find someone like Usopp - even if he was a bit odd. But then again readers, so are most people here, right?

"Hey, maybe you can help us." Nami's voice brings the young girl out of her thoughts and she looks to the young woman in question, wondering what she had missed. "Do you know of someone that could provide us with a decent ship? Or even anyone who could sail."

Usopp shakes his head, facial expression becoming apologetic. "You won't find any of that here." He pauses before looking out behind Monalisa towards the window. "But there is a place you can go to."

"Where?" Nami questions.

"There's a mansion up on that hill that a girl lives in. She's bedridden, though." He answers and Monalisa raises an eyebrow at his words.

"A young girl?" says the female, sharing a look with Nami before looking back to the sniper. "How come?"

Just as Usopp is about to begin his tale, Luffy's voice interrupts causing the two females and the long nosed sniper to look to him in annoyance.

"More meat please!" Luffy yells out to what can only be the waiteress. Monalisa glances to see the young woman is startled out of her job of collecting another customer's order by Luffy's loud voice.

"More booze too!" Zoro adds on, causing her to be startled once more and Monalisa releases a sight turning her gaze to the green haired swordsman. As if feeling her gaze on him, his dark eyes looks to her and he raises an eyebrow. "What?"

"Are you going to listen to the story?" Usopp snaps from beside her, and she guesses he's annoyed by their lack of attention which has her placing a hand on the teen's shoulder.

"Don't worry about them," Monalisa uses her other hand to wave dismissively. "Tell your story."

"A-alright," Usopp blinks and opens his mouth to speak again, more than likely to begin his tale when he's interrupted once more.

"Waiteress-san can you bring a parfait too?" Raising her hand and waving to garner the waitress' attention, Monalisa raises her voice over talking Usopp. The teen's eyebrow twitches, glaring at the orange haired female who innocently stares right back at him.

"Sorry. Please continue." Releasing a sigh of exasperation, Usopp once again begins his story with Nami and Monalisa being the only two to listen in while Luffy with Zoro await for their orders to be delivered.

"About a year ago, a girl's parents became sick and passed away. They left her with a huge inheritance, a mansion, and a dozen or so servants." Usopp says, and Monalisa watches the faraway look his eyes take on quietly. The teen is more than likely recalling something related to the poor girl and she wonders if he's acquainted with her.

"She's rich and lives a life a luxury but... nobody can be as unfortunate as her right now." He mutters under his breath.

"To have lost one's family," Monalisa places her chin in the palm of her hand, looking out the window beside her in thought. "I'd say she's anything but happy right now."

Her half lidded eyes turn when Nami slams her hands onto the table and she stares at the young woman whose hair has come to overshadow her eyes.

"Forget it." The orange haired woman's voice is quite emotional and Monalisa raises an eyebrow at the sound of anger in her tone. "We're not getting a ship here. We'll find another town or island to get that. We'll just focus on supplies for the trip."

"Do I sense pity in your tone, Red?" Monalisa lets a dry smirk pull at the corner of her lips as the woman turns to glare at her. "We'll pay for the ship if we have to from the girl and be on our way if that's what you're worried about."

"Pay with what exactly?" Her tone darkens and Monalisa cannot hide the amusement she feels at the woman's sudden mood change. "I'm sincerely hoping it's not the money I got you're speaking of, Monalisa."

"What else would I be speaking of, Red?" Tilting her head to the side but not removing her chin from her palm, Monalisa blinks innocently up at Nami who has come to stand from her seat. "You do know that that money isn't all yours, right?"

"What?" Nami snarls, fists clenching at her sides while her brown eyes glare fiercely down at an unperturbed Monalisa who just continues staring up at her innocently.

"You heard me."

Before the navigator can say anything else, Usopp jumps in looking quite scared at the turn of mood.

"U-uh, by the way," He says gaining even Luffy's and Zoro's attention who hadn't even looked up at Monalisa's and Nami's little conversation. "You guys said you're looking for crew members too, right?"

"That's right." Luffy answers, eyes glinting and Monalisa supposes he's excited at the thought of gaining someone else more on his crew.

Puffing out his chest while pointing a finger at himself with a grin taking to his thick lips, Usopp says, "Then I'm your man!"

"No thanks." Everyone else says together, staring blankly at the teen who deflates at their quick response.

"At least thinks about it..." Usopp mutters and Monalisa chuckles softly at the sight of his pout, but says nothing when he looks to her questioningly.

Pursing his lips, Usopp picks up his bag and looks ready to leave. "I guess it's time for me to go, anyway." He states, getting to his feet. "Maybe I'll see you guys around before you leave."

"Bye, Usopp!" Luffy calls after the long nosed teen and Monalisa watches as he exits the restaurant leaving the trio alone. Finally, their second orders arrive and Luffy rubs his hands together at the platter placed in front of him while Monalisa picks up a spoon to dig into her dessert.

Placing a spoonful of the ice cream into her mouth, Monalisa glances at an unusually quiet Nami who is studying the map once more. She wonders if the woman had forgotten their earlier argument, but she doesn't think so. Nami more than likely will bring it back up once she's ready.

Taking her gaze off of her fellow orangette, Monalisa turns her attention to Zoro who has another cup of ale in his hands. The green haired swordsman had been awfully quiet throughout their conversation with Usopp, but she thinks it has something to do with the alcohol he has been so lovingly consuming ever since they got here.

"Ne Zo-chan, you have a high alcohol tolerance, huh?" The wooden cup pauses at Zoro's lips, as he glances at the female. Her chin has returned to the palm of her hand, and that mischievous smile is again on her face. The smile widens when he glares at her and rests his cup down.

"Don't call me that." Is all he says before picking back up the cup and turning away from the young girl. Monalisa pouts minutely and returns her gaze to the half eaten parfait in front of her.

"Usopp's pirates are here!" A voice that sounds a bit too young declares and Monalisa pauses in the eating of her dessert to glance to the side. Three young boys stand facing the four pirates holding wooden swords and Monalisa raises an eyebrow at the display.

"Seems we have company." The young girl announces to her companions, who have all turn to look to the trio of young boys.

"Who are they?" Nami furrows her brows in confusion.

"From their words, I'm guessing these are the three that was with Usopp earlier." comments Monalisa and Nami glances at the girl. Licking her spoon clean, Monalisa puts it into the now empty glass. "They must have thought something happened to him."

"Give us back our captain!" They shout together. Nami and Monalisa share a look of confusion before looking back to the young children.

"That meat was delicious!" Luffy declares with a content smile, while giving his round stomach a rub. He seemed oblivious to their current plight, but Monalisa knows that with food involved, Luffy doesn't really pay attention to anything else.

"M-meat?" Whispers the one with pink hair, looking horrified.

"They- They... They ate the captain..." Biting her lip, Monalisa keeps herself from laughing especially when she spots the identical looks of mischief on Nami and Zoro's faces. She doesn't think her companions had any intention of correcting the three kids.

"You're looking for your captain?" Zoro leans over the table, voice eerie that has the children startling.

"What... what did you do to him?"

A grin that looks a bit too scary for the kids comes to the swordsman's lips and in the same eerie tone the male declares, "We ate him."

That did it, and the trio release a shrill scream and turns to Nami. "Ogres!"

"Why are you looking at me?" snarls the orange haired female, and Monalisa can no longer contain her laughter. The three children all pass out which also has Zoro in a fit of laughter and Nami turns to glare at the two. "It's not funny!"

Yes, it was - to the two of them anyway.

"So you didn't eat him?" They looked so suspicious that Monalisa cannot help but laugh, but she quickly hides it in a cough as Nami gives her a warning glance.

After their revival courtesy of a highly amused Zoro, the four pirates had gone on to apologize - Monalisa really, Nami nor Zoro had any of intentiondoing it, much less Luffy - for their little joke. It is not so surprising that the children don't believe their words.

"Of course not." Nami says. The sour navigator goes onto comment, "And I'm not an ogre."

"So where is he?" asks the one with purple hair so long that it covered his eyes.

"He brought us here for a bite to eat, stayed a little and then got up saying he was late for something." Monalisa answers, amusement dying down.

"Late for something?" Repeats the trio, and the pirates watch on as realization quickly took over the children's facial expressions. "Then he's at the mansion!"

This piques Monalisa's interest and the girl says, "The mansion? The one where the sick girl lives?"

"Yeah!"

"Why would he go there?" Luffy asks, speaking up after being oddly quiet for a while.

"To tell lies!" The three boys say a little two excitedly, big grins on their faces. Monalisa raises an eyebrow at their answer and quietly wonders what could be so good about telling a sad sick person lies.

"That's not nice." Luffy says frowning.

"Yes it is!" The one with glasses protests. He seems to pause as if to question his own answer before adding on a little quietly, "It is... right?"

"Yeah! It is!" The other one with dark green hair that was shaped a bit oddly assures him. It reminds Monalisa of peppers, and she silently nicknames the young boy just that - Pepper.

"He doesn't tell bad lies, he tells good ones." They go on. "Like when he told you guys he was a pirate; he lied so that he could protect the village!"

"I didn't know there were good and bad lies." Monalisa mutters dryly, a slight quirk to her lips but everyone ignores her in turn of listening to the trio's story.

"The girl at the mansion was sick ever since her parents died. It wasn't from any illness, though," Pepper explains. "It was because she was sad that they died and because she's lonely. Captain sneaks up there to tell her stories which makes her laugh. She forgets about her illness when that happens so the Captain always goes up there everyday to cheer her up."

How interesting... Monalisa muses. Telling stories to help a sick girl? That's something I haven't heard of before.

"So he's a nice guy!" Luffy grins and the young girl couldn't help but roll her eyes at her friend's simple-mindedness.

Leave it to Luffy to hear one good thing and he thinks that describes a person. Monalisa sighs fondly with a faint smile. Although, this does say a lot of about Usopp's character.

"You were nice to me so I wanna be your friend!"

"Maybe Usopp isn't such a wimp after all." Monalisa comments, smile still on her face at the happy memory.

"Telling make believe stories to a sick girl? And how long has been doing this?" Nami questions.

"A year now!" chirps the three boys.

"A year and he hasn't gotten tired yet?" Monalisa senses a underlying tone of respect in Nami's voice, but doesn't question why it's there.

"That's right!"

"That's one of the things I like about the Captain!" The one with glasses says with a smile. "That and the fact he's a meddler!"

"I like the fact that he's bossy!" chimes in Pepper.

"I like that he's so boastful but can't back up most of the things he boasts about!" says the one with purple hair.

"He's got a lot of good qualities." Zoro says confusedly.

What exactly are the good things? Monalisa can read from his expression as he looks to Luffy who shrugs his shoulders in response.

Luffy then turns to the trio, a knowing look that his closest friend spots almost immediately on his face. "Then the girl isn't so sad now, right?"

"That's right! All thanks to our Captain!"

Luffy gets to his feet and Monalisa releases a groan that has Nami looking to her confusedly for. She doesn't respond and instead gestures to Luffy with the back of her hand as her head hits the table.

"That settles it! Let's go ask her for a ship!"

How did I know this was coming?

The rightful answer to our dear protagonist is of course -

"You know him so well."

A short chapter but really the whole Usopp arc is a bit long for me to just narrate into like three chapters. This is going to last for another three more chapters I think, but please bear with me and then we'll be off to see Sanji :D

A lot of love I wanna send out to all the reviewers and favorites and follows I've been receiving - not forgetting the views! OMG.. I do hope you guys are at least satisfied with this last minute put together story aha XD

Please do review and tell me your thoughts on just about anything - Monalisa's character, her interactions, the odd way I have of addressing the audience during chapters... Anything is fine :)

Next chapter will be until July month end or early August... hopefully I get the time to post it early. .

See you guys later~