Becoming Usopp

While the straw hats were getting familiar with Crocus and got to know about the way out of the whale’s stomach the whole stomach of the whale started rattling as if an earthquake was happening.

“Laboon!” Crocus expressed his worries and without bothering to explain the matter to the crew jumped into the whale’s stomach acid.

“He jumped!” Luffy exclaimed.

“Would he be safe? It’s stomach acid after all.” Nami expressed her worries.

“Would you like to find out?” Usopp suggested.

“Like hell I want to! Why don’t you go!” Nami rebuked.

“It wasn’t me who was so concerned about him earlier though…besides he seems to be swimming towards that large gate over there.” Usopp said and pointed out.

“Isn’t that the gate that leads to the exit?” Sanji chimed in.

*Yawn*

“Well, whatever. Wake me up when we’re outside.” Zoro said as he leaned against the ship’s mast and immediately fell asleep.

“Hey wake up you green gorilla! It’s not time to sleep!” Sanji reproached Zoro but It was too late for that as Zoro had long entered his sleep.

The four of them watched Crocus climb a ladder that was built next to the wall and enter a small compartment and not long after the whale stopped moving and the surrounding became normal.

After Crocus returned back to his small island ship, he not explaining much to the crew and propelled his boat to move towards the exit gates. The reason for this was the lack of anaesthesia inside the injecting room of the whale and needed to make some more of them outside.

Since they also wanted to get out of this place Usopp and Sanji rowed the ship and followed after him. The moment they came out of the gates the fresh air slammed onto their faces. The air inside the whale’s stomach was quite damp and was incomparable to the fresh air they were enjoying at the moment.

“It feels so good to be out,” Nami said as she took a deep breath in.

Luffy flared his nostrils and took a large portion of fresh air in just for the sake of it whereas Usopp just chuckled at their antics and looked down at the sea from the ship.

“Huh?” Usopp noticed two people that were swimming away from them. On a closer look, he realized who the two were and couldn’t help but chuckle.

“What’s so funny long nose?” Sanji asked.

“It just feels good to be outside,” Usopp said not minding Sanji’s words as after his experience with women he started to take pride in his nose.

“It sure does,” Sanji replied as he took a puff and exhaled it.

“Mr 9 do you think anyone noticed our escape?” Vivi enquired.

“I can bet on my life that no one did otherwise they would have stopped us, Let’s hurry back to our boat now and escape,” Mr 9 said as he continued to swim.

Vivi believed him and followed after him till they reached their boat.

“Damn it, I dropped my log pose!” Mr 9 cried out.

“It’s with me, it was lying on the floor where we were tied.” Vivi passed Mr 9 the log pose.

“Miss Wednesday you’re a saviour!” Mr 9 quickly took the log pose from her hand and made arrangements for their voyage and a few moments later they began their journey.

As for Luffy and the rest they were currently being told the story of Laboon accompanied by a cup of freshly brewed tea.

“You mean to say they abandoned Laboon!” Sanji exclaimed.

“That’s how it is,” Crocus said

“Can’t it understand human language? Why didn’t you explain it to him?” Nami asked.

“You think I didn’t? It’s just that no matter how many times I try to say this to Laboon he’s not willing to listen. He starts wailing trying to stop himself from hearing truthful yet hurtful words.” Crocus sighed.

As Crocus discussed the bond he had created with Laboon over these 50 years of time Luffy’s figure suddenly flashed in front of him and not long after he had stabbed the ship’s mast onto  Laboon’s head and started a duel with him.

While the two were engaged in a fight the water surrounding them was going crazy making Nami and the rest freak out.

“Is he crazy or what? Does he want to die?” Crocus exclaimed.

“Yes, he is. No, he won’t die…” a dripping Usopp sighed as earlier he had tried to stop Luffy from breaking the ship’s mast but was instead thrown into the sea by him with a swing of the mast.

The battle continued for a few minutes before the promise of a re-duel was made between Laboon and Luffy. This was followed by Luffy’s attempt to paint Laboon’s forehead with the pirate symbol which took a few hours.

While Luffy was busy painting, Usopp with his pained smile was hammering metal sheets onto the masts to connect it back. Since the others show no inclination to repair the ship the onus naturally fell upon him and he repaired it the same layman’s way like Usopp did in the original.

Just like that the day came to a rest and after having a warm and delicious meal prepared by Sanji everyone went to rest.

The next day early in the morning the topic related to the log compass came under discussion as Nami noticed that her normal compass was not able to point in any direction. Seeing their plight crocus explained to them about the log pose and the magnetic fields in the grand line.

After all the explanations were done Crocus offered them his log pose to which Nami was especially grateful because he gave it to them for free. After that Crocus gave them names of a few islands they could sail towards to start their journey.

While Crocus was on this topic Usopp scurried close to Luffy and whispered to himself in a very low voice so that only Luffy could hear, “I’ve heard cactuses taste even better than roasted meat after boiling them and peeling off their skin…oh how much I long to taste this delicious stuff,”

Luffy’s ears twitched as Usopp’s words were sucked in by them. His mind soon got occupied with the image of him trying to devour a large delicious cactus and saliva soon started dripping off his mind.

“Luffy!” Nami’s words soon brought Luffy back from his dazed state as he looked at her in confusion.

“What is it Nami?” Luffy asked a bit regretful after being woken up from his daydreaming.

“We need to decide our next island among the five choices we have. Since you’re the captain it’s your job to decide.” Nami said.

“Alright! Tell me about the islands!” Luffy asked filled with excitement.

“Alright, these are the five islands: Stone bed island, Flowery peace island, Swampy Lake Island, Hairy Arm Island and Cactus Island,” Nami concluded and continued “So, among these islan-“

Before Nami could complete her sentence Luffy’s cheerful voice interrupted her midway, “Cactus Island! Hehe, I can finally try them!”

Nami couldn’t help but sigh as out of all the islands why did he have to take the one that sounded the most dangerous? Seeing Luffy’s behaviour he had no intention of going to any other island so she could only go with his decision.

Usopp who heard their monologue couldn’t help but have a small smirk on his face as he thought to himself, ‘All according to plan,’

_____

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