Dash of Truth, Sprinkle of Surprise

A/N: This chapter underwent some major restructure before publishing. Great inspiration from my wonderful beta Telepath98 for the idea!

Hmm, out of curiosity, do PM's sent through the app are made available to the website accounts? I sent one to each of my critics whom I owe a lengthy thank you for pointing out some flaws I very much needed to fix, but I did it through the app.

Significant edits in chapters:

4 [explanation of Flicker and Quick Draw, some minor things]

7 [Gin and Usopp's conversation tweaked a bit]

8 [little things. I'm trying to warm up to the idea of formally explaining Usopp's full capabilities]

9 [changed how Usopp gets the kairoseki but keeps the tools, incorporating what Draco Oblivion said]

10 [edited some conversations, especially the conversation between Usopp and Zoro to be less superfluous and airy. After considering the words of .420 and Draco Oblivion, I really rehashed the conversation and added a few other differences. Does it sound any better? Probably will go back a few more times throughout the writing of this]

Thanks to all readers, followers, voters, and especially reviewers like: BlackDove WhiteDove, Neobenm, Sulina, Mermaid's Magic, and .420, Draco Oblivion, Ender the multiverse Detective, The Keeper of Worlds, Guest, and Henrage.

To Mermaid's Magic: I'll definitely consider it. As for the Drum Island Arc, you'll have to wait and see~

To .420: I'm actually glad to hear your opinion. I never really gave a proper address to Usopp's Soru-based skills, so I'll be going back and doing some edits and rewrites. Might rework the scene with Zoro, I'll admit it could have been better written, but I didn't know how to go about it.

Although, I think the Six Powers accurately would be the trademark of CP9 and incorporated loosely by marines, usually seen in the upper ranks or people with high enough connections (Coby, vice admirals, Tashigi). Considering how East Blue is the weakest of seas, the chances of marines with those kinds of skills coming there is slim unless their home island is there. By how most people regard the East Blue before the rise of the Straw Hats, those kinds of people are freak occurrences, exceptional exceptions. And aside from Soru, the other techniques just aren't as widely spread even among marines.

Draco Oblivion, I'm not sure if you got my PM or not, but I did take in a lot of your suggestions and remarks in my latest re-edits of the chapters. Feel free to make more comments. Until this fic is completed, I don't mind going back and tinkering with the plot and how I wrote out stuff.

Sorry to hear about your disinterest, MrKeyFox, but I'll stand by my major plot and character decisions Quite a few reviewers did express a desire to have him included on the crew, so I thought, why not? Even if his background isn't all the interesting, he might make for a good project for character development. He's still kind of messed up from Don Krieg, and isn't taking a strong stance on his own ideas and opinions…yet.

[Rant warning]

So…should I be insulted when someone leaves a vague tirade against my character design? Or flattered they decided to tell me their mind? I don't mind people telling me if they're uncertain about things, or if they don't particularly like one aspect of the story, but telling me my character is only half as good as the original and half as courageous doesn't actually tell me much at all. Specifics would be nice. Such as, it is too ranty when the SIC freaks out? Too many freak outs in general (though, how else should a real-world character feel when plopped into the world of fantasy? Even original story characters don't fare too well if they were just regular people. And honestly, Usopp freaked out a lot anyway in the canon. The only difference I perceive is you can now hear the character's thoughts).

And by half as good…in what way? Should I have overpowered the character? Left Usopp exactly like canon? Learning from the resources Usopp had at hand isn't exactly a great way to learn things quickly and efficiently. And I didn't feel compelled to add a mysterious mentor in my story (though others are welcomed to do so if they do something similar to this). It's a miracle the character translated headcanon theories, memory, and some hearsay into what they have so far, I think.

That's how I'm going to take the vague use of "half as good" as meaning skills.

When one goes out to become essentially a criminal, how is the ability to lie bad? Is it because the SIC is lying to their crewmates still? The old adage is better to be forgiven later than to ask for permission. Or in this case, better to be forgiven later than ask for trouble now. There isn't enough motivation or a good enough reason for the SIC to willingly give up their secrets. And considering they are still amnesiac about their own history, they would only sound mad if they did tell without something more telling to back up their words. I do realize it's not like the SIC can keep this ruse up forever, and I already have planned out when to reveal things.

As for canon-verse…I kind of did hinted (outright said) things will either twist to fit the original timeline or ripple into some sort of crazy thing later. The SIC was never intended to mess up the East Blue Saga events significantly, and we've ventured two chapter into the Grand Line. I have every intention of making canon events go screwy in a few more chapters, but there's a build-up to those kinds of things.

I really do appreciate when reviewers tell me their thoughts, but if you lean toward scorn rather than proper critiquing to give me some sort of framework to amend and improve my writing, why should I bother changing my writing style just on that? And you're right, it's been ten chapters and 46,000+ words. Try telling me something more substantial to uproot the basis of my story, please.

[Rant End]

I hope no one else takes this author rant too badly, but I want to lay down my own expectations this early in the story. Tell me what you find genuinely wrong, and I'll listen. Tell me vague nonsense without even some sort of specifics to work off of, and I can't exactly do anything but ask in the manner above. If all else fails, PM me. I'll surely read it by the time I'm updating a chapter at the latest, and I will take the time to read it first and possibly make changes then. This isn't an excuse or invitation to badger me with inanity or baseless criticisms, though. If you take the time to write out a full message, at least give me something solid to construct an answer or fix. Seriously, I'm a writer of fanfiction. I don't expect anything I write to be that good, honest, since I write for pure enjoyment without much feedback except by other users.

Shortly after leaving Whiskey Peak, Nami and Gin revealed their justly earned loot: a few thousand beli liberated from the bounty hunters ("Sheesh, they hardly had anything!") and a chest.

Nami was on it in seconds, bobby pin fiddling inside at least locks. Finally, the top popped open to reveal:

"What? Bullets and handcuffs? Why the hell would they lock something like that up?" complained Nami. I on the other hand, madly grinned.

"Oh Luffy~" I trilled, grabbing a handcuff, "if you would mind, try holding this."

The moment Luffy touched it, I knew exactly what we had. Instantly, the straw-hatted pirate legs turned to jelly, and he nearly flopped to the ground.

"Luffy!" everyone shouted in alarm.

"Ugh…feels like that time Smoky jabbed me with his pole-thing. He said it was…caramel saki?"

"That's kairoseki!" gasped Princess Vivi. "The Whiskey Peak base kept a supply of it around for devil fruit users, but we thought we would have everything handled after you all appeared to have fallen asleep. Plus, that's our only supply of it, and we didn't trust anyone stationed here to fire the bullets without wasting them."

"It's an invaluable resource on the Grand Line. This is about two dozen bullets and two sets of handcuffs! A fortune if we tried buying it anywhere on the Grand Line from what I hear," I announced with a wide grin, thoughts churning. It was wishful thinking originally, that led me to ask Gin to check while he was fetching Nami, but it looked like I was right!

"Did you say fortune?" smirked Nami, beli practically glowing from her eyes.

I flailed my hand in protest. "They're great deterrents against devil fruit users most importantly! They act like the dipping a user into the sea, robbing them of their strength and powers. But the marines control most of the supplies, so we would have had to gone through the black market like Baroque Works might have. Same if we were selling. Nami, please take some of the funds allotted for ammunition as recompense; I got some tools from the weapon shop owner, so if I can find a forge or strong enough fire, I can melt them down enhance our weapons!"

Fire…maybe I could ask Ace? A fire Logia could surely function like a personal furnace, right?

"Kairoseki weapons, huh?" considered Gin for a moment. He grinned sharply. "I'm in."

"Nami, my gift for you is almost ready, but I also have some plans for a better version later; if you want, I can put some kairoseki on the tip of a dagger for emergency use for now," I offered her. Hopefully we can find or buy more of the stuff later on in our journey. So caught up in the whirl of ideas, I didn't notice the discerning look in our swordsman's eye until he spoke up.

"Hey, Usopp, I think it's about time we all had that talk you promised."

I rather not, to be quite honest, but I did promise Zoro I would. So, with the crew and our guest all gathered, I gave them a summarized version of my current lineup of skills, how I heard about them in a story (which is technically a half-truth since I did hear about Rokushiki from a fictional source), and how I was still missing a few more skills.

"Hmm, if I'm reading this right, the only abilities your current repertoire is missing is that body armor skill and the flexibility skill," Nami hummed.

"To turn one's legs into swords," mumbled Sanji with a gleam in his eyes.

"Shitty Cook, even if you can do that, I'll still be a hundred times better fighter than you," Zoro established.

While those two got into another of their daily scuffles, everyone else was still thinking. Well, most everyone was doing their thinking in their heads.

"Shishishi, cool! So, someone who can master all six is considered superhuman? Usopp, teach me!" insisted Luffy.

"Err, I'm not sure how to teach them to be quite honest. It's not like I actually mastered them. Honestly, I would like some real world examples, so I could figure out what I'm doing wrong. Although, I'm pretty certain I just lack a lot of the stamina and strength needed to power the full versions; by all means, at least you, Zoro, and Sanji should be able to use these powers with no problem beyond figuring them out."

"Usopp is right."

I nearly yelped as Sanji came back into the conversation, suit still pristine.

"R-right? About what?"

Sanji ignored me and continued, "If someone like him can manage these kinds of skills, there's no reason why we can't. Since his are the bastard versions anyways, we should probably focus on making our own."

"For once we agree, Curly-Brow," Zoro chipped in. "We've seen Usopp use Quick Draw and Flicker plenty of times. And if we have to fight more Baroque Works agents, we'll see him perform the others soon enough. It would be boring and predictable if we all could do the exact same thing as Usopp.

Nami shrugged. "Whatever. It's good to know what you can do, though, Usopp. This way we can plan around your particular skillset. It probably would be a good idea for us to do some team practices, though. It would a good idea if we could work in tandem against strong opponents like the top officers of Baroque Works."

Gin nodded. "Usopp-san's other skills are quite interesting, and I have been tinkering with some ideas of my own. Cooperative battle styles could be quite useful. At the very least, we would have some sort of training to fall back on if we need to tag-team multiple enemies at once. I know working with Usopp definitely factored in to the success of capturing our two prisoners."

Luffy chuckled, "Okay, then that's decided! Usopp, you can show us your skills, but don't bore us with the details too much. We'll all practice fighting together…ne, Nami, when should we…?"

"Only on deserted islands or on island with plenty of wilderness for you monsters to practice," said navigator insisted quite pointedly. Nami had the right, Zoro and Luffy tried sparring at some island we used as a rest stop and nearly totaled half of the forest. Quite impressive; the villagers weren't so lighthearted about it, though.

Princess Vivi didn't offer any advice of her own, probably because this was a crew matter, and she didn't consider herself a crew member (at least, right now she didn't).

Once we finished up our discussions, we headed out on deck...

And finally noticed the storm minutes away from crashing into us.

Princess Vivi looked like she was in a perpetual state of bewildered and flummoxed in regards to us. Apparently, our earlier actions didn't quite hammer home how the crew didn't fit into any of Princess Vivi's expectations for a pirate crew. Especially since we waved off her worries about Grand Line weather. I couldn't blame her for looking at us like we were all mad (everyone was pretty abnormal or eccentric in some fashion).

Still wasn't going to work myself up because from here on after the next island, our crew will be smack dab in a near constant series of unfortunate and plain disastrous events that will involve the lives of hundreds if not thousands of people.

I didn't even bat an eye when that giant porpoise nearly crushed us (Then why did you cry out in fear, clinging to the mast until Luffy ordered everyone to run away from the freaking huge dolphin? snarked inner Usopp).

Anyways! A few days later saw us to the next island. I had just finished giving some sedatives to our groggy prisoners. They understood very quickly upon waking to not mess with me after I used Snipe Kick to clip a few hairs off Mr. 13 cheeks. And Gin may or may not have been lurking nearby. Plus, they didn't really have much to complain about since Sanji fed them decent food rather than the prison rations, I padded the chains pretty well for their comfort, and they have an actual cot to sleep on down here. I even removed some of their restraints, so they were free to glare at me all they want from behind their eyewear.

Vast trees flanked the shores. Blood-curling roars could be heard deeper in. I looked up and saw some sort of archaeopteryx flying overhead. Sanji who had glimpsed it was too distracted by Nami to even note the very not birdlike features. Say the clawed wings and freaking teeth. The whole island seemed to shake as a distant volcano erupted. From the edged of the jungle, a huge tiger stumbled out and collapsed. I was half-expecting Luffy suggest we pull to the shore and collect it for lunch.

Yep, this was Little Garden. The very ironically named island. Full of prehistoric animals. And tropical diseases. And those giants who made New York Skyscrapers seem tiny. No problem.

"Luffy, I have the this-island-is-crazy-dangerous disease!" I trembled, eyes darting around. This dank, dark, dangerous island wouldn't be so bad if I could stop picking out the signs of huge carnivores everywhere from just around the shoreline.

"I agree. We could just quietly drift along the coast or this river until the log pose finishes recording! Besides, we want to reach Alabasta as fast as possible, right?" Nami tried to persuade our captain.

A series of giggles didn't reassure the two of us at all.

"Sanji!" shouted Luffy. "Prepare me a bento!"

"A bento?"

"Shishishi, a pirate bento! I smell an adventure awaiting us!" giggled the straw-hatted teen with blatant anticipation and glee.

Nami wasn't having it, but Luffy was too stubborn. Then Princess Vivi volunteered to come along with Carue in tow.

So, after those two strode so casually strolled into the dinosaur-infested jungle, the next duo also left, both still arguing about who can catch the bigger prey. Sanji also said we should take the ship further upriver and see if we can resupply our water supplies and maybe check around for any edible plants.

So, good news! The river did lead us through this totally sketchy swamp before we found this great freshwater lake being fed by a crystal-clear waterfall further ahead. Now…how did we know it was genuinely drinkable water, you might ask? Well…

"Usopp! Gin! We need to get out of here! Little Garden is known for-!" Earlier, Nami ran inside her room as she recalled reading something about this very island. Looks like she found the book.

"Giant prehistoric creatures, many of whom could regard us as appetizers?" I whimpered, not turning around to face her. Nami's eyes darted from my ghost-pale complexion to Gin's clenched hands around his tonfa.

"You have to be fucking kidding me," Gin deadpanned. Nami slowly turned to see what had gotten our attention. Scattered across the shore were several Oda-help-us dinosaurs! And not a few sported fangs in their beaky jaws.

*Thump* And there went our navigator.

I turned, putting on my fakest confident grin as I said, "Well, Sanji did say we needed more meat. And water, so…"

Gin mumbled something about "I did ask for this, didn't I?" before going to adjust our course for the dinosaur-infested shores nearest to the waterfall. I kind of wanted him to pick up on the fact that I did not want to get any closer, but my words were the truth, so…

Did I say how much I really didn't like Little Garden from the get-go?

Between Gin's iron-hard strikes and my sharpshooting, we had several small dinosaur corpses to pad our larders. Maybe this in addition to what our brave hunters end up bringing back will keep us supplied until Luffy's next midnight stroll through the food storage space. Nami blinked her eyes opened, rubbed her face, looked up- and screamed as she saw the two of us stripping the dinosaur skeletons for steaks. I suppose the whole covered in blood and guts with freshly decapitated and whole heads full of killer teeth and deathly yellow eyes sitting next to us didn't help matters.

Several minutes passed of telling Nami to settle down and that we had Gin to protect us, before the navigator finally felt like she could deal with the reality of Little Garden. Gin and I both took a dip into the water to clean off the byproducts of our impromptu lizard skinning, Nami kept an eye out for more predators from the crow's nest. I found a wonderful small cove sheltered away from the main water body, clothes and bag secured out of the water with a little flotation helper I made from some wood scraps.

About halfway done with my wash-up, I noticed something strange. Not a strange noise but the lack of noise. Until a little while ago, I heard a constant cacophony of roars, growls, screeches, and rustles not too far away from this part of Little Garden. Neither the anime nor the manga explored much into the interior of Little Garden aside from the areas around the giant sea king skeletons imitating mountains. I cocked my head in question, turning my back to the forest for just a minute…

Definitely should have listened to my inner Usopp I sobbed into my head as I was toted upside down on a stick like some sort of pig carcass. There were people dressed in lizard and tiger skins all around me, marching steadily deep into the dank and creepy swamp. I was in the middle of trying to figure out what had scared off the wildlife and didn't notice a thing, say, like a bone club smashing into the back of my skull.

Finally, we reached our destination. My eyes turned into saucers as I beheld a bewildering sight that sent inner Usopp screaming in terror and my more logical side flummoxed. In a clearing that dipped down quite a bit rose a very large curly trunk tree. But what caught my eye was the thing hanging off the longest and most curled branch: a devil fruit. It looked like some sort of dragonfruit but aquamarine blue with swirl patterns and the peels looked a tad feathery than leathery.

"You, outsider!" grunted the one wearing a huge dinosaur skull like a cap. This guy was big; not giant big but bigger than someone like Krieg easily. "You have dared to defile the sacred grotto of our ancestors!" Of course, I did. "As punishment, you shall be sacrificed to the guardians to the great Jewel of the Tree of the Forgotten Ones."

Why did that sentence send a chill through me? Could be due to what look like the velociraptors bigger cousins that jumped down from said tree. They had feathers all over them and a mouth full of serrated teeth.

"Look, can't we come to an understanding? Please?" I begged them as they brought me closer to the tree.

"Do not worry. This is a much kinder punishment. If you had damaged the grotto, we would have hunted you down, and skinned you alive, preserving your meat for the great annual feast like we do with other trespassers," one of the warriors kindly informed me.

Yeah, totally buying that while you haul me to those deadly lizards like some sort of virgin sacrifice. Or a pig roast, but I really didn't want to temp fate with the idea of open fires…wait…WHAT DID HE JUST SAY?!

Why, mysterious force? I silently (and no, damn it, I had something in my eyes, probably from hanging upside-down!) only did I offend a crazy tribe of people who worshipped a devil fruit, but they were CANNIBALS?!

"Can't we work something out?" I squeaked. To answer, they threw me down into the pit. The bird-like predators locked onto me. I squealed in fright as they slowly approached.

In a few more movements they could be on top of me in an instant. Heck, they were playing with me in the first place since they could be on me in a hot minute. To top things off, I was still only in my swim trunks!

I did the only sane thing I could do; I ran screaming, startling the raptors for a brief moment before they all charged. By only the grace of my semi-super human skills did I keep from getting a huge vital chunk of me snapped up by the vicious reptiles. With the tribespeople surrounding the entire perimeter of the pit, wouldn't make it far even if I used Scaling Step. With the conventional avenues of escape closed off, I made a break for their sacred tree-thing, damn the consequences. I heard cries of anger as I ran up the tree, barely scrabbling into the upper story before dagger-like teeth snapped on the air just below my feet. Hysteric, I didn't realize where I was crawling until I noticed the growls and shouts of anger from the cannibals had risen to low roar of vengeance. I was afraid to look ahead of the branch to which I found myself clinging. I did look. The devil fruit was just within arm's reach. If the savages had long-ranged weapons, they probably would have resorted to them, sacred tree or not.

One of the dinosaurs got bold as it saw me peek out from the main body of the tree. I thought I was done for as the thing leaped up, teeth grazing by my face-

*THWACK!* A distinct steel weapon came twirling through the air, smashing right into the dinosaur's cranium, knocking it out cold. There was a yellow satchel hanging off the handle somehow, so I wasted no time yanking if off before gravity reclaimed the heavy weapon. I looked out to see Gin and Nami fighting back-to-back, bo staff and tonfa meeting clubs, primitive swords, and axes. Working on automatic, I readied my slingshot and rained down fire, water, pachinko, and pain on the lizards who had cornered me up the tree before switching targets. The natives blanched as fire seemed to rain down from the sky on them, never knowing it was delivered by the sniper who went back to crouching under the dense foliage.

I smirked as the unexpected attacks drove the crazy people into chaos. Clearing my throat, I bellowed in my deepest, most demon Zoro-like voice, "HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME?! I AM A REPRESENTATIVE OF YOUR GOD, HIS PROJECTED HUMAN FORM! I ENTRUSTED THIS TREASURE TO YOU, YET THIS IS THE THANKS I RECEIVE? THIS WAS A TEST OF YOUR PERCEPTIVENESS AND YOU HAVE FAILED ME GREATLY! A DOOM OF FIRE SHALL BEFALL YOU!"

The natives all turned to regard the voice coming out of the tree. All of them screamed in fear and ran.

"Huh, was I that scar-"

A shadow suddenly covered the sunlight. The looks on Nami and Gin's face said it all. I slowly turned around.

"Well, aren't you little humans spirited? I must admit, even I find those people a bit much after nearly a century of sharing this island," chuckled what could only be a FREAKING VIKING GIANT! Forget Mohmoo, this guy was like the human equivalent of a sea king in size! It was one thing to look down on the sea kings turning your ship into a bath toy, it was another to have a legendary being LOOMING OVER YOU!

"Anyways, little humans. As I was saying, do you happen to have any rum with you?" asked the behemoth of a human-sized sentient. I think the thinking center of my brain shut down as only the same refrain of THERE'S A FREAKING GIANT HERE kept repeating in my head.

Finally, both Nami and mine minds finally clicked back into action. We did the only natural thing: we screamed bloody murder. First some dinosaurs, then cannibals, now a giant?

"Excuse me, but do you mean us any harm?" Gin bravely asked, not flinching as the giant gave a great bellowing laugh.

"As long as you don't foolishly try and attack me, we'll get along just fine," the giant reassured us (not really). "I was just taking a stroll through the jungle, getting a drink of water from that lake when I noticed your ship docked by the falls. When I head the racket from the local nuisances of the island, I naturally got a little curious.

Those natives aren't very intelligent, even drove off a small civilized community that had settled on these shores. Very odd lot, worshipped that tree there and its devil fruit. Neither myself nor Dorry – the other giant who lives here – are really interested in such things, so we let them do as they pleased. However, with the lack of much ingenuity or sense, they lack any desire for the one thing Dorry and I really crave after all these years here: a good barrel of rum. As you may guess, there isn't much in the way of things to prepare some good alcohol on this island regardless, so some rum would be much appreciated, little humans."

I was very tempted to play dead with Nami (or faint), but if Gin could go and ask the giant his intentions so bluntly, then I can that courageous, too.

"S-sure! Sanji shouldn't have too much of a problem with sharing some of our alcohol since we have a lot from resupplying at Whiskey Peak. If you take us back to our ship and maybe redock back downstream, you're welcome to have some!" I nervously offered, laughter high pitched and smile strained.