Chapter 9- Syrup Village! The Return of Captain Usopp!

Luffy, Zoro, and Nami sat cramped into the tiny sailboat. Luffy would periodically wake Zoro, to the swordsman's chagrin, while Nami would occasionally express her frustration by punching them both in the face. Several times. Without missing a beat in her navigation. Luffy grinned, recalling Sanji's typical antics and what he would say if he were there. To be fair, he'd probably be getting punched just as hard.

Suddenly, Luffy jumped up excitedly, shouting "LAND! LAND! FOOD! LAND!" He leaped over the side of the boat, foolishly forgetting two things. He couldn't walk on water, or even swim, and he was STUPID.

As Luffy sank helplessly to the bottom of the ocean, he caught a glimpse of Zoro's scowling face as he dove in to drag the drowning monkey out of the sea. As he was being set down on the deck of their temporary vessel, which was barely large enough to hold the motley crew, he had a great idea. He looked towards the orange-haired navigator, who as he noted hadn't even attempted to save a disapproving glance at her he pushed the matter aside;

"Nami, can we buy a typewriter? It's a cool way of writing words some guy invented in West Blue. I feel like I could write a really cool story. It could be all tribal and awesome!"

Nami looked puzzled at this wild, not to mention random, claim. "What makes you think you could write this awesome story?"

Luffy smirked. "I can try. Maybe I'll make something good eventually. You know what they say: Monkeys and typewriters!"

After Nami and Zoro had finished beating up Luffy, they saw that the boat had managed to ground itself on the island. Luffy hadn't remembered the large rocks that were now sticking through the hull, but the boat certainly wasn't going to forget for a good while. Luffy realised it was more important that they get hold of the Merry, but was confident that he would be able to, as long as he handled Usopp and Kaya right, and didn't let cat cosplayers kill them.

"That sounds cool." Luffy mused, sounding the words out and rolling them around in his mouth. "Killed by Cat Cosplayers, Cat Cosplay Killing Killed. Cats Kills Killing Cat Cosplay... Have to think about that one" He ignored the searching glare Nami and Zoro gave him and leapt onto the sand. Nami and Zoro followed him it of the boat, involuntarily salivating at the thought of a long-awaited meal.

"HALT! Treacherous pirates, you picked the wrong village to make your little raid on!" A sudden shout rang out. A tall, proud stranger stood on the top of the nearby cliff, with curly black hair, glaring and clutching desperately to a small, beaten-up, slingshot as if it was his only hope. He continued his spiel, self-righteously pointing his thumb to his own chest.

"Leave here at once, or you will face the wrath of the mighty Captain Usopp and his 10 million warriors!" To that Luffy giggled, thousands of fond memories of Luffy lying to protect people who needed no protection reverberating with the captain's head.

The other 'Captain' looked upset at Luffy's failure to take his advice seriously, but before he could make any more ridiculous claims Luffy reached out and gently prodded the sniper's admittedly strong, but unharnessed, Haki with his own far superior aura. The effect of which was that the Mighty Captain Usopp, commander of ten MILLION men, swayed and toppled over forward... off the front of his cliff. Luffy was, however, at the foot of the rocky overcrop before Usopp had even fallen halfway down, and he caught the sniper with no effort at all, laying him down gently on the sand before running to grab some sea water. Stretching his hands out, the rubber man formed a sort of watertight container that held just enough to rouse someone (A trick he wasn't sure about when it first occurred to him, but it turned out the idea held water). Making sure not to step too far into the ocean and lose his strength, he gathered a decent amount and walked over to pour it on Usopp's face. Normally this wouldn't wake up a Haki victim, who in rare cases could go into comas, but if a full blast was akin to dropping a boulder on someone, Luffy gave the sniper a mere slap. One he took quite well, in fact. Usopp had proven many times just how much punishment he could take, and that stamina extended to his mental strength, even if he himself didn't know it was there.

After some bruises for Luffy, for doing weird things to the longnose they just met, and the introductions and explanations after that same longnose roused, the four headed into village. Usopp treated them to a meal in a local shop, then showed them a photo of a pale girl, to which Luffy nodded impatiently.

"Kaya, right? Er-!" Luffy caught himself but far too late. 'CRAP!' he mentally cursed. In his eagerness to impress Usopp and make sure he'd still join the crew, Luffy had revealed he knew more than he was letting on. He quickly composed himself and adopted a knowing, but slightly panicked, smile.

"How did you know that?" The sniper turned on Luffy, thankfully more impressed than angry. Luffy half-sighed, relieved, but caught himself and tapped his nose enigmatically.

"I have my sources"

Usopp, his enthusiasm to talk to the pirates curbed by the strange conversation, made his excuses and left, presumably to talk to Kaya. Luffy remembered what came next, and he relished the thought.

Even as Luffy licked his lips in anticipation, three children burst in. The first one wore a yellow T-shirt with a blue jacket over the top. He had square-rimmed glasses over his strangely pupil-less eyes. His hair extended in a strange stalk over his head. The next wore an apple-shaped hat, with a skull on his green T-shirt. Despite the apple-hat, he looked the most normal of the trio, because the third had purple hair which completely covered his eyes. It spiked out of the top off his strange headwear, which was red and featured the same skull as Appleboy.

"Where's Captain Usopp?" the children chorused in perfect unison. Luffy timed his voice to fit exactly with Zoro's as they both stood up and delivered his line."We ate him!" The children were terrified, and Nami was slightly irked, but impressed that Zoro and Luffy could be organised enough to speak at exactly the same time. God knows they do it all the time, but not normally the same words.

The Usopp pirates screamed out that Nami was an 'OGRESS!' and disappeared. Luffy and the others chased them to the gate of Kaya's mansion, where they saw Usopp sitting in a tree, conversing animatedly with the rich heiress, telling her all about the giant goldfish he'd met on his adventures. Luffy hushed them all, easily climbed the fence, reached the window, and shook Kaya's hand, all before realising the rest of his friends were trapped outside the gate. No worries, Luffy just slingshotted them all over with a huge crash into the dirt. Oops.

"OI! YOU! INTRUDERS!" Enter Klahadore...

(A/N: Somebody help that tiny woman! She's trapped in a square! (For anyone who didn't get the typewriter joke, tribal people Shake spears)).

This chapter was a little on fast-forward because I didn't want to repeat stuff. Sorry if the pacing's off.

Very sorry for the long wait, and in advance for more waiting. I'm very busy with GCSEs and other jobs etc at the moment. However, hopefully I'll have more free time after Monday. Y'all are awesome, Go away Marcus (guess which reviewer that guy was) and MIIAAAOOWWW).