Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
This is how it all started, all those years ago, my journey began with annoying banging at my door.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
"Usopp! Wake up! Your promised to tell us stories today!"
"Yea! You better not have lied to us!
"We'll beat you up Usopp! We want our stories!
Those kids, my pride and joy, I used to think they were such snot nosed brats, but I couldn't help but instantly take a liking to them. At that moment though, I hated them more than anybody I've ever met before. I was not a morning person, and the banging and screaming was not a good way to wake me up.
So groggy, I didn't even realise that my name wasn't actually called! What I did know though, was a couple of idiots were ruining my beauty sleep.
"I don't want to buy any cookies! Go away or I swear I'll eat your intestines!" I shouted, sitting up and finally opening my eyes for just a moment to scream at the door. It was then that I could shake my sleepiness off enough to notice how strange the situation was.
Firstly, how did kids end up outside my bedroom? I didn't have any brothers or sisters and certainly no children, I was only 17 after all, still living with my parents.
Secondly, when I sat up I realised something else. The door was straight in front of me...and it wasn't mine. It was wooden, and seemed to almost be falling off the hinges. It looked old and beaten up.
At this point I began looking around in confusion and my blood ran cold at the discovery. Not just the door was different, but everything. My tv, game system, pictures, posters, and mirror were all gone.
Instead what I found was a beaten up dresser with nothing on it, I was laying on a twin sized bed instead of my queen, and my head hurt. Badly. It felt like my brain was trying to jump out of my skull and getting worse by the second.
It was then that pictures started flashing through my mind. Memories of a person, of a life, that I never lived. What really got me, is that as the memories flashed by, I could recognise certain people and places.
A dark skinned man with dreadlocks holding a pistol with a musket on his back: Yasopp.
A beautiful young sickly blond with a smile that could brighten the sun: Kaya
3 young kids, one with green hair, purple hair, and orange hair: Piiman, Ninjin, Tamanegi.
All these and more flew inside of me, and suddenly I knew things, things that the anime and manga never showed. Nothing really important mind you, but things I didn't have knowledge of before nevertheless.
I don't exactly remember how long I was actually sitting there, but it must have been long enough for the kids to forget my very serious threat and barge in. And there they stood, in front of me like it was normal for them to be there; Piiman, Ninjin, and Tamanegi. Or rather Pepper, Carrot, and Onion for the dub watchers.
I could recognise them immediately, not only because of the weird headache, but because they looked no different from when I was watching them on screen. And I mean that in a very literal sense. They didn't look like their anime counterparts, they were their anime counterparts. They actually were anime.
In fact, EVERYTHING looked to be anime drawn. I looked down at my hands and knew, that even I was anime drawn.
"Ugh! Usopp you promised us a story if we went to sleep early! Why are you being weird and staring at your hands? Is there something on them?" the green haired Pepper asked with a tilt of his head? With the question, all three surround the small bed to see what I was looking at.
Once they realised nothing was there though they got a little angry.
"Oi! Did you trick us!? There's nothing here!" this time the purple hair Carrot screamed.
Confused and honestly scared out of my mind, I needed time to think, alone. Away from the screaming children, and for a second, just a single second, I acted like everything that was happening was normal.
"Pepper, Carrot, Onion, how about you go in the kitchen and eat huh? I'll tell you a story while we eat breakfast, I just need to get ready for the day." I said, with the kindest smile I could place. It was then that I heard all three of their stomachs growl, and my smile froze as I saw their faces. They looked to the ground while holding their stomachs, and I could tell they were trying to avoid looking me in the eye. That's when what I said caught up to me.
"Usopp...we ate the last of our food last night remember? We don't have anymore."
They were orphans, all three of them. Honestly, thinking back on it, it makes sense. We never saw any of their parents in the manga or anime. If they had them, why would they let their kids hang around a known pirates child. Not only that, but Usopp was a troublemaker himself, an obvious bad influence. Why had their parent's never stepped in? Because they didn't have any.
Usopp found them in this abandoned building after his mother died. He needed somewhere to go and be alone, when he came upon a run down shack with 3 kids in it sharing a stale piece of bread. Ever since that day, he's been with them. It's been a year since then, and he considered them his little brothers.
Almost immediately, the same feelings passed on to me. I can't tell you whether it was because I was now in his body and took on some of his feelings or another reason, but one thing was certain, I promised myself I would protect those kids.
I jumped out of bed with gusto, and made sure to keep my smile on full blast.
"Well let's go get some then! Don't worry, today I have a plan, but give me time to get ready okay?"
Within moments, their smiles could almost rival mine. Nodding they left the room talking amongst themselves. My face fell immediately. A million thoughts ran through my head per second.
Why was I there? What happened to me? Did I die? I couldn't actually remember dying though. The last thing I could recall was simply sitting in my room watching One Piece. There was no bright flash or pain, I didn't meet any god. I was just...teleported.
I honestly still couldn't believe it. I was in One Piece. I was going to be the Sniper of the Strawhat Pirates. I was going to battle other pirate crews and the very world itself and win.
...I was going to battle...the world. The marines, Doflinmingo, hell even the fishman were terrifying. I couldn't sit there and freak out over my situation, I didn't have the time, especially since I didn't know where I was in the timeline.
Getting out of my bed, I walk to the dresser and open one the the droors. Sitting there in all of its glory was my slingshot. Picking it up, it felt right in my hands, like it belonged. Usopp apparently slept with his clothes on, so after I grabbed the slingshot, I quickly headed out into the kitchen to see the kids sitting around a dusty table, on chairs that seemed like they'd break if to much pressure was forced on them.
First things first, we needed food. I couldn't get stronger if I starved to death, and so I told the kids to follow me outside.
"Where are we going?" asked Onion, he's the one with orange hair.
"To the market-" I answered looking at the sun just rising. "There are people there who are setting up their stands early but not too many people that we'd get caught."
"Get caught doing what?" he asked innocently. I simply smiled and told the truth.
"Stealing."
"""Stealing!""" they stopped walking and screamed. Luckily the shack is far enough away from the general public no one would hear anyway. "Isn't stealing bad?" questioned Carrot.
"Yup it is, but we're going to do it anyway. Didn't I promise to tell you something interesting today, well I might as well share my secret with you."
"""Ohhh, tell us! Tell us!""" they begged with stars in their eyes. Literal stars! Getting used to the whole 'Anime' thing was gonna be hard.
"You see, my dad is a very famous pirate name Yasopp. On the crew, he was the ships Sniper. Before he left, he told me that there was going to be a boy around my age named Luffy who is going to visit this island some day. He said that I'm the Sniper for that crew."
"Wait...are you saying you're a pirate!?' asked Pepper, but before I could answer, Onion interrupted.
"Screw that part, didn't you hear what he said!? He already has a crew and is just waiting for them to pick him up. Usopp...is leaving us."
"What…"
I noticed tears form in their eyes and I also noticed them trying to hold them back. I think they were trying not to cry in front of me so I wouldn't feel guilty about leaving to join my crew. All that really happened was my guilt multiplying because how caring the brats were. I shook my head.
"No, I couldn't leave you guys behind, we're family right? You all are coming with me." With this, I must have shocked them enough to ruin their concentration, because their tears began flowing.
"R-really?" asked Carrot. I nodded to confirm and smiled.
"Of course, now wipe your tears, men must be strong enough to face the challenges of the world with a smile."
"""Aye!""" I chuckled on the outside but sighed on the inside. Now even an hour in yet and I was already changing the story. My future knowledge would become equal to trash on the road pretty soon.
"But still though, why can't we just go ask Kaya for food like normal?" Onion questioned with a frown. It seemed like he was the smartest of the group.
"Because you all know Kaya is very nice to actually give us food once a week, but we already got our weeks share and I don't want to go and beg for more. We already bother her too much as is and she has to hide it from that bastard Klahadore and Merry. If she gets caught she may get in trouble. Besides don't worry, this won't become too much of a regular thing, I have a plan.
After a little bit we finally arrived at the market where just like Usopp's knowledge predicted, were a few venders trying to set up their stall early.
"Okay guys, here's how this is going to go. You see that idiot over there setting up his fruits and vegetables stand?" I asked, pointing a rather normal looking individual. They all nodded. "You 3 are going to walk up arguing about who's the strongest person of our group. Just as you are about to pass by him, Pepper I need you to push Carrot into him. Not hard, but just enough so Carrot bumps into our victim. Onion, you will then push Carrot, and you will all wrestle on the ground. While his attention is elsewhere, I'll grab our breakfast. When I call your names, immediately stop and follow me. Understood?"
They all nodded with a revering expression.
"Alright, it's showtime, go!" With that, the 3 began walking towards the vendor's direction, talking about who's the strongest amongst them. Actually, they were pretty good at acting. If I didn't set up the scenario I wouldn't have found anything suspicious.
Just as planned, Carrot was knocked into the man, making him drop a couple of his wares. He started to yell at them about something but they paid him no mind as they began wrestling in the dirt.
I casually walked behind the stand and placed several apples, oranges, bananas, and grapes in my satchel. Quickly, I walked walked away with no one the wiser. My plan however was working much better than I thought it would though, and several people were gathering around.
Not one to waste an opportunity, I didn't stop only at the fruit's stall. I hit up other vendors. Vendors selling trinkets, meat, hell even some selling rum and alcohol since they were in my reach. I eventually had to stop when my satchel couldn't hold more and called my group of great acting rascals. I made sure I was far enough away from my victims stands of course, so I wouldn't draw suspicion.
Just like I told them, they got off the ground and walk towards me, still growling and snarling at each other.
Nice touch kids.
After we were sure that the poor victims couldn't see us, we ran back to our shack, laughing and giggling along the way. I knew that grabbing straight from the strall would be dangerous so I tried grabbing most from their inventory, those still in the bags and not yet placed. I hoped no one would notice.
Once in the shack, I empty the spoils of our victory on the kitchen table and I couldn't help but laugh as I saw all of them salivating.
"Dig in guys, tonight we feast!" I scream, and they all shout in agreement before digging in with abandon. I knew that I should have been rationing out our foodstuffs but tomorrow was the day we were supposed to meet Kaya for our food anyway. And just for now, for my first day in this world, I wanted to give them a taste of freedom.
"Guys, I'm going to go see Kaya, save some for me yeah? I'll be back tonight."
I heard what may have been a 'sure' but I couldn't actually tell with the orange slices in their mouths as they use them to make funny faces.
I chuckled as I left the building and headed back towards the market. You had to pass it to enter the main town and you had to pass that to get to Kaya's manor. It took me a while, about 20 minutes, but I finally made it to Kaya's place. Usually Usopp would skip right past the front door to get to Kaya's window but I didn't actually need Kaya.
The person I needed was luckily in the front yard with shears gardening. He had fluffy white hair with weird antlers on top of his head. Merry. The moment he saw me, a scowl replaced the calm smile he had while taking care of the garden.
"What do you want troublemaker? Kaya isn't seeing you today."
As I walked up to him, I could feel the disdain the man had for me. I knew he wasn't a bad person though, and was only looking out for Kaya's wellbeing. Plus, the real Usopp was actually a troublemaker, so his scorn is very well earned.
We stared at one another for a bit while I tried to figure out an effective way to reach my goal. The longer I stood there silently in front of him though, the more irritated he seemed to get.
"Well?! Are here to just waste my time? If so, then I implore you to leave, Actually, whether you're here to waste my time or not, leave anyway." he said with a nasty look. Just as he was about to turn around to focus on his duties, I dropped to my knees. I heard him gasp in shock but I couldn't actually see his face, as my forehead touched the ground.
"PLEASE GIVE ME A JOB!"
I needed to train for what the future has in store for Usopp, better advice has never been spoken, but before the training, and the fights, and the pirates, I had 3 kids to take care of. And to do that, I needed money.
"PLEASE!"