Chapter 1: He's A She!

"What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies."

-Aristotle

...

Present

Another boring day with the boys.

Where's Logue Town? Nami thought, massaging her temples. She wanted to do something rather than watch the same old weather and scenery and the boys. Racking though her brain to find something to do, she realized she had already read all the books on the ship not once but trice. Then a thought of busying herself with her maps. I could re-draw the maps a fourth time... She humored herself.

Drifting on the ocean surface, a dark lump was sprawled on a plank. Her head shot up after a few blinks. "Luffy!" She called, staring at the half-dead person as he immediately ran up to her with the rest of the boys following after. Curious much?

A single memory flooded her mind. Fuchsia, the color of her mother's hair, and the nostalgic smell of sweet tangerines filled her nose. Bell-mere. Whoever that person may be, they had reminded her of her late foster mother. And she felt compelled to help this person. Besides, it would change the mundane crisis she's in.

It appeared to be a young boy, dressed in an oversize trench coat in what seemed to be stale gray, smeared in crimson and dust. His blood was seeping into the ocean and it was surely going to bring the sharks' attention and stalk the scent.

"He's alive." She said. "He needs our help!" Nobody did anything as they turned to look, it was strange to see Nami jump to help a total stranger without gaining some profit out of it. "Quickly!" She ordered viciously at Luffy. He jumped and immediately used his Gum-Gum power, fearing the navigator's wrath if he hadn't done anything.

Shortly after grabbing the boy, the crew heard a blast in the distance. Snapping their heads towards the direction of the source, they saw blackened smoke and fire raging above water just behind them. There was pieces of debris and vegetables pelting the ocean surface. A ship filled with crates from farmlands to Logue Town.

...

Luffy carried the boy and placed him on a wooden bench by the wall in the kitchen. Nami could finally get a better look of this unknown boy. He wasn't what Nami expected: ashed face covered in a mask and unruly black hair that looked a bit synthetic. But her curiosity turned to his small collection of unused weapons in a rolled up satchel.

A delivery boy? She thought, confused. Nami turned to look at the weapons. "This poor kid." She said quietly and the crew came up looking at it too. Looking around, she noticed their sniper was missing. "Where's Usopp?"

Sanji came up to look at the small weapons: knives and daggers with a slight curve. A signature blade. "Heard him pacing around in the room with incoherent words flying out of his mouth." He said absentmindedly and took out one of the boy's dagger, running his thumb on the blade, nearly nipping his thumb. Sharp, he noted. It was pure and light alloy.

"They look familiar... Syrup village?" Sanji thought, weighing it. Light and easy, just like the kitchen knives from the Baratie. But that blacksmith was only allowed to make culinary knives. He thought deeply, recognizing the littlest signature in the throwing knives. It may not look any different to untrained eyes, but he knew this was Rikku's work. Just what is that man up to?

Zoro glanced at him. "How would you know that?"

"That geezer," he referred to Zeff, "usually ordered new knives from Rikku. These knives look exactly like this. He's the best blacksmith in the East Blue. Heard he took in two apprentices; his son and some scrawny boy."

"Anyway, we should get him back to his feet." Nami said.

Scoffing, Zoro examined the guy once more. "You can't just let any one stay here and take care of them just because they look pitiful-"

Nami cut him off. "He's just a kid, Zoro. This guy is obviously hurt, and besides, we have you, Sanji and Luffy to take care of him if he tries to kill us with his baby cutlery knives."

Zoro huffed in response.

"Okay, Sanji. Help me remove the jacket, and I'll check his wounds... which are," Nami paused and look at the wound in between his ribs, and continued, "badly patched up... he must have done it before he fell unconscious. Well, the least I could do is change it properly."

That's strange. This boy. . . Nami thought. She peered over the body and noted a few scars here and there, but that wasn't the big picture. Lifting the shirt up and taking a peek at the chest when Sanji went to grab the medical bag, she mentally shrieked in excitement. A-hah! No way! Yes Lord, yes! Thank you for answering my prayers even though I'm the biggest sinner in the entire world! She smiled to herself, obviously enjoying this day more than ever. He's a she! The day she wakes will be something Nami looked forward to.

In fact, she's anticipating it.

...

The next day

Nami was the first to notice the stranger wake up. Oh, she had been waiting for this. Her brown eyes wide like a cat who spotted a gleaming jewel. She was out of that horrendously unfashionable trench coat.

It was lunch time and Sanji was preparing sandwiches. The girl slowly brought her cleaned hands to the side of her head and cringed. She hadn't opened her eyes yet and her ears probably had not adjust to the sounds around her. Trying to push herself up, she fell back and clutched her stomach with a low groan.

"You shouldn't move too much, kiddo."

Startled, the girl jumped back and flattened herself against the wall like a frightened animal. Her eyes looked at everyone in a hurry, counting them and calculating her next moves. But it was apparent that the girl was drawing a blank in her brain. Her facial expression changed drastically, from cautious to troubled, and she opened her mouth to speak, but no words came.

Nami smirked. She had removed the girl's mask and cleaned her face from ash and blood. Now she was no doctor, but she did patch her up the best she could.

"For a boy, you kinda have a unisex face." Nami commented, toying around, while the crew stared at the said boy inquisitively.

She froze for a moment with wide eyes, touching her mouth where her mask once was, and she hid her face with her hand.

"I'm Nami," she said with an all-knowing smile and humour. It made the girl uneasy, especially with that smile. She was about to say more only to be cut off by a man in the stranger's trench coat.

"Well, I'm glad you woke up!" He had a long nose but the rest of his features were well-hidden under a hood and stood in a Heroic pose. Everyone narrowed their eyes at him. With a nose like that, it was obvious who it was. "I am the bravest of all the brave. I am the great Captain of this ship. The-" Luffy tried to cut him off, but his friend just shushed him, "-most daring daredevil of the seas!" He laughed, while his friends sucked their teeth and shook their head. "Bask in my light, mere mortals! It is I, Captain-" He trailed.

The boy with the long nose tore off the coat in a blink of an eye like a masked villain finally revealing himself. The coat landed on a man with green hair. Grabbing the coat, the man tore it off of him, balled it up, and chucked it away with a sneer.

"Usopp!" He shouted proudly as his friends looked at him oddly. "Feast your eyes on all this-" He went to step down from the table top to the bench attached to it, but unceremoniously slipped on the discarded coat and landed on his head. Crying in pain, he sat up with crossed legs and held his head. He chanted 'ow' miserably while everyone's faces had frowns and twitching eyes.

"That's what you get for standing on the table, you shitty idiot!" A blond with a curly eyebrow snarled.

"Usopp...?" The girl said with a monotone voice.

"Eeeeeeeeeh? You know each other?"

A/N:
This is just a friendship thing. My OC, Ayame, is close to Usopp. I'm not sure how to explain it exactly, but have you ever looked around in your classroom and saw that one person you know that's your person? This is her situation; Usopp is her person. And she is non-committal, clumsy, and probably has borderline Asperger's syndrome. She's a tough cookie, but definitely not a strong person.