Chapter Text
"Protecting what we cherish most as men is the reason why we formed this pirate crew!"
It happens without fanfare, without trumpets blaring or fire burning or guns blazing. It’s just Usopp, Kabuto, and their enemy.
Luffy was distracted. Surely, this was the greatest number of enemies their crew of nine had faced without any outside assistance. A crew of mercenaries, those specialized in killing without honor, uncaring of the pain left in their wake. Dozens of them, skilled fighters. Nami had been busy dealing with the endless sea of mercenaries, waving her clima-tact carefully. Trying not to hit her crew with her attacks had become an exercise in itself, and she could tell the others were having trouble with that as well. With only the deck of the Sunny as their battleground, it made it difficult to use their full arsenal.
The mercenaries were much different than the marines they had been fighting recently, too. Their movements were faster and well-suited for murder rather than capture, and they had a wide array of devil fruits that Nami was still trying to decipher. Weapons-based ones, most of them paramecia, which made them increasingly complicated to figure out and counterattack.
So yes, Luffy was distracted. Having the highest bounty meant that the most mercenaries were attacking him at any given moment.
And Nami is sure that the world stops when one of them - a man with devil fruit powers, if the purple sparks emanating from his hands are anything to go by - propels a woman towards Luffy. The purple energy engulfs her (some sort of transferable power?) as she flies towards him, a sword in her hand. She’s nearly on him when she’s suddenly thrown off course, and a copious amount of vines springs up from the projectile, wrapping around her.
Usopp.
Luffy finally notices the woman, temporarily subdued, and when he does he grins widely and sends a thumbs up to their crow’s nest. Usopp responds by taking out one of Nami’s enemies, and she smiles to herself as she reengages in the battle. Absently, she’s aware of their other nakama around her, fighting their own matchups. Some are having more fun than others (she’s pretty sure Franky is laughing as he blows some of them to hell, despite a chunk of his arm missing. Chopper, on the other hand, is screaming his head off as he quickly changes between his heavy and brain points to avoid the nunchucks being thrown at him), but all of them are fighting hard.
So it’s only natural that Nami doesn’t see it until it’s too late.
“Luffy!” They hear, an exclamation filled with urgency and panic, enough to make all of the Straw Hats turn briefly to the yell.
Usopp’s down from his perch, Kabuto raised as he runs to Luffy. He lets loose ammo, but it either doesn’t hit the purple energy guy currently advancing towards Luffy or the man’s devil fruit powers override the ammo, because it has no effect.
“Usopp!” Luffy says excitedly, apparently happy that Usopp’s down fighting among them all. Their captain is locked in a battle with over ten mercenaries at once, obviously overwhelmed but having the time of his life despite (or maybe because of) the danger.
And then they all freeze. The purple energy man reaches for Luffy. The woman with swords appears seemingly from nowhere next to him (another devil fruit??) and does the same, her sword extended. Usopp jumps. Nami can’t breathe.
(How could he have known of the impending danger? Was his view just that good? Was it haki?)
The purple sparks and the sword collide inside Usopp’s chest, and everything that was frozen and silent suddenly bursts to life, everything too loud and bright and fast.
“Usopp!” Sanji yells, his kicks getting faster. Zoro loses his patience and slices the mercenary in front of him in half, both he and Sanji abandoning their fights to run towards Usopp and Luffy.
Nami rips her eyes from Usopp as he hits the deck, hard, suddenly aware of her own battle. Her mind is a mess, just a loop of Usopp oh my god Usopp oh my god his chest but she manages to move her arms anyways, fighting the battle on autopilot. Disembodied hands appear out of nowhere to subdue one of the people she’s fighting, allowing her to whack another two out of commission, and she looks around to see Robin nodding at her, though her eyes quickly move back to their fallen sniper.
Luffy is still struggling with some of his opponents in his haste to get to Usopp. Nami is frozen, watching Usopp’s gasping form on the deck of the Sunny. Usopp's not a close-range fighter. A memory hits her, unwelcome and painful.
“As a sniper, it’s my job to protect. If any of you are greatly harmed while I’m on alert, it means I didn’t do my job.”
The woman twists the sword and blood spills from Usopp’s lips. She removes it and plunges it back in, and a scream rips itself from Nami’s throat. Usopp’s eyes go wide in pain, his gasps increasing.
I’m watching him die, she thinks, just as he stills.
Zoro tackles the woman with a roar, his swords singing with vengeance. Sanji’s foot is ablaze, and the man with purple sparks seems to understand the gravity of the situation, and he calls out for retreat. The tides have obviously turned, and not in their favor.
Nami sends a lightning bolt towards their ship, anger and hurt in the action, but she’s tripping over her feet to get to Usopp, to Luffy, she has to see, she has to know, she has to be there.
The rest of the crew obviously feels the same, and only Robin has the sense to call out, “Chopper! Everyone else, back up.”
Luffy only crowds closer, on his knees next to his sniper. The sword is still sticking out of his chest, aimed towards the sky. Chopper is in full doctor mode, sprinting forward and dropping down over Usopp. Nami’s heart is beating out of her chest, loud loud too loud, but everything is much too quiet without Usopp’s usual nervous chatter, without his breaths and she holds her own in her lungs, praying for the first time in her life.
The entire scene happened in a span of five minutes, maybe more, the time lost to the fight gone in their haste to get to their fallen crewmate.
Chopper stills in his ministrations, and Nami thinks, This is how it feels for a heart to be ripped, still beating, from your chest.
“Chopper, what's wrong?” Luffy demands with all of the authority of a captain, his hands clutching one of Usopp’s, his furrowed brow on Chopper’s bent form. It says something about Luffy's perceptiveness and trust that he’s not questioning Chopper's actions, like Nami wants to. She wants to scream at him to keep going, to save Usopp. Instead, she holds her breath.
Chopper looks up much too slowly, and Nami thinks a sob leaves her chest. She’s not sure.
“The sword hit his heart,” Chopper chokes out. “He bled out quickly, but without any more blood circulating to his, brain, he…he, and- and it,” Chopper is quickly losing his composure, trying his hardest to keep it together, but no one reacts when Chopper dissolves into loud wails.
Nami’s hands feel numb. Her climatact makes a loud thump as it hits the deck. She looks to her right, hoping someone will say that this is some sort of prank. Some terrible, awful, cruel prank that they’ll definitely get a beating for, but a prank all the same. One that ends in Usopp sitting up and laughing, pointing at them all between guffaws as he says, “Gotcha! Oh my god, you shoulda seen the looks on your faces! Guess you guys would miss me after all, huh?”
But to her right is Brook, deathly silent; Robin, strangely cold; and Franky, stoic outside quickly dissolving into tears. On her left Sanji stands, his gaze on Usopp’s supine body but his eyes unseeing. Zoro is on his other side, jaw clenched so hard she can almost hear his teeth grinding, muscles working to fight some sort of opponent that no longer exists.
And Luffy…Luffy grips Usopp’s hand tighter, holding it to his cheek as he squeezes his eyes shut. “Chopper,” he gasps out, “can you make sure?”
Chopper’s cries just grow louder, a wordless answer, and Luffy turns his face to the sky, lips pressed together as he suppresses a scream. Nami wonders if this is what it was like when Ace died.
But this time Luffy isn’t alone, and he quickly takes a gasp of air before visibly pulling himself together. He’s trembling as he lets go of Usopp’s hand, and as he backs away Nami finds herself reaching forward. She has to know. She has to-
This isn’t how it was supposed to end. Usopp was going to become the bravest of all the seas. He was going to go out in a blaze of glory, on his own terms, once they were old and their time was up. He wasn’t supposed to meet his end so quickly. Unceremoniously. A sword to the chest trying to protect his captain, dying on the deck of his ship before his adventure had barely started.
She can’t help but mourn it all: the cowardly trio, now a duo. Usopp’s art, immortalized on their jolly roger. Usopp’s inventions, never improving, wearing down until they’re obsolete without him to work on them. Usopp’s pop greens, withering away to nothing without his care. She thinks that Usopp might have been her best friend. She never had one of those before: someone to laugh with and cry with and run away with. They shared secrets and fears and living space, and she confided in Usopp all of the things she refused to let the crew worry about, knowing he would worry enough for the rest of them.
Those secrets die with him, and it seems strangely fitting that he be the only one to have heard them.
His skin is dark enough that he doesn’t pale in death, and it could almost be that he was sleeping if not for the lack of movement. He’s not as warm as he should be, and no life hums under his skin. His constantly-moving fingers are still, his grinning mouth is slack, his bright eyes are unseeing. She leans forward and closes each eye, one at a time. Zoro reaches over her and pulls out the sword, and a bit more dark, black blood leaks from the wound in Usopp’s chest. Zoro tosses it overboard, kicking the body of the swordswoman that took Usopp’s life into the sea as well.
Nami leans on Zoro’s leg, wrapping her arm around it and trying to hold herself up. Luffy stares at their dead nakama, unmoving.
She thinks, suddenly, of when it was just the four of them, setting sail in East Blue on the Going Merry, young and determined and hopeful. She thinks of Usopp, wiry and unsure, his hands planted strongly on his hips as he declared, "I'm going to become a brave warrior of the sea!"
Zoro’s hand curls around her shoulder. Inexplicably, she wonders if he’s remembering the exact same scene. His chest is heaving with the effort to stay strong.
Nami herself doesn’t have the same inclination, so she looks down at their fourth crewmate (another member of her family she couldn’t save), blood on her knees and shirt, and cries.
__________________________________________________________________
The goodbye is devastating.
Franky obviously has no problem making a small dinghy, and making one fit for Usopp is easy as well. Usopp is (was) a simple man, one who loves (loved) his crew, cared for his ship, and fought to be a brave warrior despite adversity.
The dinghy, then, is made of scrap wood: some left from Merry, some from different ports they’ve stopped in. It’s strong enough to carry the body out to sea before sinking, held together by Usopp’s steel nails that he made in his workshop.
He can see it now, a skinny kid with no muscle mass and more bandages than skin dragging warped wood towards a dying ship, determination and goodbye in his eyes.
“Why?” Franky had asked, in more words.
Usopp had looked at him, the ghost of his ship reflected in his gaze. He had known then exactly what made this kid tick, he had known the soul that burned in his veins. It was the soul of a shipwright, and the ticking of a clock that told time in promises made to friends and farewells that never lasted too long.
He had loved that ship and her crew more than his own life, and had loved them all until the moment he died.
So he’ll send the kid off like a shipwright, like his nakama, and hope that in the next life, he's reuniting with his precious ship that he was ready to die for.
Across the deck, Luffy is solemnly watching as Sanji and Robin wrap Usopp in his hammock (or rather the sheets that laid inside his wooden hammock), Kabuto at the sniper's side. Once he’s snug, Nami kneels before him with a needle and thread and begins sewing up the hammock. He can see her hands shaking even from where he’s standing at starboard, and she has to take frequent breaks as she repeatedly pokes herself. Small beads of her blood drip onto the thick white cloth. Robin reaches forward to offer help, but Nami snaps something at her, making the dark-haired woman back away quickly.
He watches Nami deflate and obviously apologize, and Robin forgives her easily. She runs a hand through Nami’s hair comfortingly, saying something else that makes Nami let out a loud sob before she’s back to sewing as if the interruption never happened.
Zoro and Brook emerge from below deck, each lugging one of the smaller cannonballs that they keep for mobile attacks. Robin ties the cannonballs to each end of the hammock using the ropes hanging from it. Chopper is still sobbing, though more quietly than before. Franky is still wondering if this is real. They haven’t spoken much to each other since Chopper declared Usopp dead, and it’s mostly because there’s nothing to say.
It would be easy to fill the silence with if-onlys: if only they were stronger, if only Usopp had stayed in his nest, if only they had been faster…. But no one does. They simply do their duty as nakama to lay Usopp to rest, returning him to the sea as good crewmates should.
They’ve never looked as old as they do now, all of these young kids preparing their friend for his funeral (nineteen, the kid was nineteen. That’s not a life. That’s a single season in the eyes of a great blue whale. That’s a child. That’s not supposed to be the end. Except for him, it is).
Luffy is standing over the proceedings, watching silently and solemnly. His mouth is set in a careful line, his hat hanging around his neck by its string, his hands balled into fists. What if Usopp hadn’t jumped down from his nest? Would Luffy be injured? Dead? Would this funeral also be the disintegration of a once-great crew?
Franky turns back to the dinghy. Usopp’s final ship. It needs to be perfect. Those other thoughts can wait for the silence of night, when he doesn’t have other responsibilities or eyes on him. They look almost done with the body's preparations, but he can perfect the vessel in minutes. His hands move slowly, moving over the wood with a care he only reserves for small children and animals. Usopp deserves that much, does he not?
The last step is tying Usopp’s jolly roger to the makeshift mast, and he does so with the reverence of a priest making an offering to a god much stronger than he.
“Safe travels, friend,” Franky breathes into the flag, and it flutters in response.
__________________________________________________________________
Zoro and Franky lower and push the dinghy out to sea.
“Yo-hohoho, Yo-hoho-ho, Yo-hohoho, Yo-hoho-ho, Yo-hohoho, Yo-hoho-ho, Yo-hohoho, Yo-hoho-ho,”
Usopp’s dinghy sails for exactly forty-seven seconds. Zoro counts.
“Gather up all of the crew, it’s time to ship out Binks’s Brew,”
Brook, of course, is the one who starts the singing. It’s slow and quiet. A funeral march.
“Sea wind blows, to where? Who knows! The waves will be our guide,”
It’s Robin who joins him next, her voice rough but clear. Strong.
“O’er across the ocean’s tide, rays of sunshine far and wide,”
Sanji’s next, his off-tune voice singing the next line with them.
“Birds they sing of cheerful things, in circles passing by,”
Nami, sobbing and ugly,
“Bid farewell to weaver's town! Say so long to port renowned! Sing a song, it won't be long, before we're casting off!”
Franky. His voice is loud, and the tempo of the song increases.
“Cross the gold and silver seas, the salty spray puts us at ease,”
Chopper, barely able to get the words out as the dinghy stops in the water, slowly starting to sink,
“Day and night to our delight, the voyage never ends!”
Zoro finishes his counting, adding his terrible voice to the fray.
“Gather up all of the crew! It's time to ship out Bink's brew!
Pirates we, eternally are challenging the sea!
With the waves to rest our heads, ship beneath us as our beds!
Hoisted high upon the mast our Jolly Roger flies!”
They all sing out to their crew member, wishing him better seas.
“Somewhere in the endless sky, Stormy winds are blowin' by!
Waves are dancing, evening comes, It's time to sound the drums!”
Luffy’s voice joins them for the end, and when Zoro looks around he notices that they’re all sobbing, screaming the words towards Usopp’s sinking body, unable to comprehend what exactly they’re doing (how can they say goodbye now, after all they’ve been through? Is it enough? Can there be a thank you in goodbye? How do they tell their friend of their regret?) but still trying their best.
“But steady men may never fear! Tomorrow's skies are always clear!
So pound your feet and clap your hands till sunny days return!”
Any trace of Usopp or his hammock disappears beneath the waves, weighed down by the cannonballs. Franky hits something on the mast and their cannons all fire, one by one. Zoro wonders how long that rigging took him. Probably minutes. He wonders if Usopp helped him with it, days or weeks or months ago. Brook finishes the song by himself, everyone else too overwhelmed to continue.
“Gather up all of the crew, it’s time to ship out Binks’s brew.
Wave goodbye, but don’t you cry, our memories remain.
Our days are but a passing dream, everlasting though they seem,
Beneath the moon we’ll meet again, the wind’s our lullaby.”
They stare at the sea for a long, long time, until a voice breaks the silence.
“Captain?” Robin asks hesitantly. The sun has started to set, and they need direction.
Luffy looks at them. They look back.
“How….” His expression is unreadable, which is unnerving. Usually Luffy is the easiest of them all to read, especially to Zoro. The only time his expression is indecipherable is when he’s being unusually serious. Of course, if any situation called for that particular expression, it was probably this one. They all wait for him to gather his thoughts, the only sound Chopper’s badly muffled sobs.
“How am I supposed to be Pirate King without my entire crew by my side?”
Zoro watches as Luffy’s face collapses on itself, the devastation on it far beyond tears. He’s never seen his captain in such a state. Then again, they’ve only lost a crew member once before, but even then Luffy had had more life when sending off the Merry than he does now. He had been screaming apologies, still animated despite his grief.
Now, he is unnaturally still.
Merry. Usopp.
“Luffy,” Zoro steps towards him, face set. They’ve laid Usopp to rest just an hour ago and now their captain is already falling apart. They can’t function like this. Zoro wants to mourn, too, and they will: but not before he sets the record straight.
“We all knew what we were getting into when we joined you,” he says. And it’s true. They’re pirates, for chrissake, not candy shop owners. “We knew the risks, Usopp included. But we also knew the rewards. Joining this crew meant joining the future Pirate King. Are you really going to dishonor his memory by forgetting that dream?”
“Zoro’s right,” Chopper pipes up, and everyone turns to the little reindeer in surprise. The kid’s been inconsolable for the past few hours as they prepared the ceremony, but it seems he’s managed to pull himself together enough to say his piece. He turns his tear-stained eyes to Luffy. “All Usopp ever wanted was for you to be Pirate King! In Alabasta when we fought the scary mole lady and she laughed about you wanting to be the king of the pirates, Usopp was ready to die defending your dream. You can’t give up, Luffy. Usopp would be so sad!”
“You cannot lose faith,” Brook says. His voice is incredibly sad. “Crew members come and go, but they live on in our adventures. I carry every nakama I’ve lost in my music and my soul. They are there for every win and loss, every triumph and sadness. Our sniper lives in us, and even if you cannot see it now, I’m sure you’ll find a time when you need him, and he will answer.” Right. This isn’t Brook’s first rodeo. Somehow, that makes it more tragic.
Luffy lets out a choked noise. “Of course I’ll still become the Pirate King!” He says, and even though the intention is real, the bravado is forced. He tries to smile, fails, and turns his eyes to the ground as they gather more tears. “I just…really wanted him to be there to see it.”
Nami smiles sadly as a half-laugh, half-sob leaves her lips at Luffy's childlike statement. “We all wanted him there too, Luffy.”
Zoro lets them sit in their sadness for a moment before he turns away from the empty sea, his eyes finding a blonde head. “Oi Cook, this is a funeral, isn’t it? I think a toast’s in order.”
Sanji doesn’t even try to look annoyed, he just meets Zoro’s eyes and nods once in understanding, disappearing into the kitchen for only a moment before reappearing with eight glasses and a bottle of something expensive. He hands them out as he pours them, serving Zoro last. Zoro grips the glass in his shaking hands before taking a breath and raising it towards the ocean in one last toast.
“To Usopp!”
“To Usopp!” They all echo.
“Our brave warrior of the sea,” Nami adds. They clink their glasses and drink, Sanji pouring out the rest of the bottle into the ocean so their sniper can enjoy the toast with them.
He knows that they’re all thinking the same thing. They need to become stronger. Tougher, better, wiser. So that this will never happen again. They thought that they were ready for this journey, that they had finally gotten to the point where they could defeat any enemy with enough willpower and sheer strength. It’s horrifying that Usopp had to die for them to learn how wrong they were.
“On ahead,” Luffy says, his glass empty and his eyes reluctantly ripped away from Usopp’s final resting spot. “To wherever the next adventure is.”
“Aye, Captain,” Nami responds, throwing her head back and tossing the rest of her drink down. “Ahead it is.”
Ahead it is. Because they’re the Strawhat Pirates. They only know how to look ahead, to move forward, to get stronger. They all swore to it when they joined this crew, hearts set on their dreams and eyes on the horizon before them.
Zoro takes another drink to hide the tears forming in his eyes.