Syrup Village,
On a hillside by the sea.
"Th-that ship is huge..."
"Look, those guys seem really vicious..."
"Could they be pirates? What do we do, Captain Usopp—"
The one the three children called "Captain Usopp" was a boy with fluffy black hair wrapped in a bandana and a long nose. Looking at the enormous merchant ship below, he crawled backward stiffly, his whole body frozen.
"I suddenly remembered that it's naptime now,"
"I have a disease called 'I'll die if I don't take a nap'..."
"Captain Usopp, pull yourself together!"
"How can you be afraid of mere pirates..."
"Who's there?"
As a cold, murderous voice rang out, the three children peeking from the top of the slope turned and ran, leaving behind:
"Hey, hey, hey, you three—"
No choice. At a time like this:
"You pirates, this is the territory of Captain Usopp!"
The long-nosed boy got to his feet. Facing Roman, Luffy, Zoro, and Nami as they slowly approached, he pointed a thumb at himself and shouted threateningly.
"Get back out to sea, or my eighty million subordinates won't stand by!"
"Tch, there's only a little dirt slope behind you. How exactly are you hiding eighty million subordinates there? Did you eat the Castle-Castle Fruit?" Roman rubbed his temples. Just thinking that someone like this would become a "companion" made his heart feel exhausted.
Come to think of it, the only truly reliable crew member would probably be... Robin?
Usopp's move was rather like shouting, "At my command, eight hundred ax men will rush out from behind the screen!"~~
"Y-you saw through it...?"
Who wouldn't?
Whoosh.
"We're pirates."
A figure flashed, and a cold voice sounded behind Usopp. The hand lightly resting on his shoulder made half his body go numb!
"One wrong word, and your head will roll—"
Roman's finger lightly slid across Usopp's neck, instantly drenching the boy in cold sweat. His legs shook at high speed as if he had eaten the Rubber-Rubber Fruit! But then:
Slap.
A pair of hands seized Roman's wrist tightly, accompanied by Usopp's trembling voice.
"I... I absolutely won't let... you enter the village..."
"Interesting."
Roman's finger against the other boy's neck slid sideways along his skin as he supplied the sound effect himself.
"Pfft!"
"Ah~~~~"
"Roman, he fainted."
"His eyes rolled back, and he's foaming at the mouth... No way..."
Inside a restaurant in Syrup Village,
"So that's it. You're recruiting companions and looking for a ship."
After changing into a new pair of pants, Usopp had fully recovered and eagerly began promoting himself to Luffy, Zoro, and Nami.
"If anyone in this town has a spare ship, it would be Kaya's family. She's the young lady of this town. She has a mansion, lots of businesses, and more than a dozen servants."
"Unfortunately, her parents died of illness a year ago. No matter how rich you are..."
"Stop."
Nami interrupted Usopp, but he did not mind and returned to the previous topic.
"So, what do you think? If you're recruiting people, I can join too~~" As he spoke, he confidently pointed at himself. "I can be your captain!"
"No!" ×3
"Think about it!"
"Hahahaha~~~"
"What are you laughing at?" An annoyed Usopp looked at Roman, the one who had scared him unconscious. "Do you think I'm a coward..."
"No." Roman shook his head and spoke seriously.
"You're very brave—I apologize for what happened just now."
?
"If it were me, facing an enemy I couldn't possibly defeat alone, I'd have run so far away that no one could find me. How could I possibly stand in their way?"
And even after the boy named Usopp had passed out, he had still held tightly onto Roman's wrist... Honestly speaking, Roman did not think he possessed such "resolve."
"Hmph, even if you say that, I'm not happy at all~~"
(*^▽^*)
Have you been possessed by Chopper?!
"Oh, right. It's time."
Glancing at the clock on the wall, the long-nosed boy stood up. "You eat first. I've got something to do~~"
Not long after Usopp left, the three children came looking for them.
From them, Roman and the others learned that the long-nosed boy had gone to "tell stories" to Kaya, the girl who had lost her parents... Fine, he was "bragging" to ease her gloom, so:
"Great, then let's go borrow a ship from the young lady's house!"
Luffy, full and satisfied, stood up and loudly announced it.
"Sorry about my companion..." Roman, paying at the counter, pointed toward his temple with an expression that said, "You know how it is." The owner gave him an awkward but polite smile.
However, after eating, the four of them still arrived before a mansion. After entering the courtyard without permission, what they saw was:
Usopp being harshly scolded by a bespectacled butler!
Wow, this—
Before Roman and the others was practically a melodramatic scene from The Humiliated Live-In Son-in-Law, God of War:
How noble is my young lady? How could someone like you possibly be worthy?
Take the money and get lost!
Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river. Never mock a poor young man~~
This Syrup Village isn't worth staying in!
Outrageous! Outrageous! A mere pirate's son—
Walk out of this mansion today, and there will be no place for you in Syrup Village...
It was roughly like that. At this point, if a group of pirates with bounties in the hundreds of millions jumped out and shouted, "We welcome the son of a Four Emperors officer to emerge from seclusion!"
That would have been perfect...
"Roman, what are you laughing at?"
"Ahem." Roman shook his head. "I thought of something funny."
Fine, although the content was similar, it was not that crude and brainless. The bespectacled butler merely provoked Usopp into hitting him with a few words.—With that, Usopp's image in the heart of the mansion's owner, Miss Kaya, immediately plummeted.
Then, with just a few more words, he forced Usopp to angrily leave behind the threat, "I'll never come here again," before storming off.
As for Luffy's idea of "borrowing a ship," it naturally came to nothing as well.
"Hey, Usopp."
After the group walked out... fine, after they were "thrown out" of the mansion behind them, Luffy asked the long-nosed boy beside him.
"Are you really not going to see that girl named... named... Kaya again?"
"Hmph, if that butler apologizes to me, it's not like I can't forgive him." No matter what he said, he still could not let go of that frail, sickly girl.
"Heh, then you may be disappointed."
Roman suddenly spoke from behind them, drawing everyone's attention with a single sentence.
"Because Miss Kaya doesn't have long to live."
"What did you say?!"
Usopp abruptly turned around, his whole body trembling as he stared fixedly at Roman! Even though he knew he had no power to resist this person, still:
"Kaya is sick, but she'll definitely get better! Take back your curse! Or else—"
Even Nami frowned beside them, while Luffy said:
"Roman, did you notice something we don't know?"
He chose to trust Roman immediately.
"Don't misunderstand. I'm not talking about Miss Kaya's illness. I mean that butler from earlier—"
"Was his name something like 'Grahano'?"
Roman spread his hand, and an old yellowed Bounty Poster "appeared" from his palm. Usopp jumped in fright, while the figure on it made his eyes widen abruptly!
"Th-this is..."
"Hey, isn't that the butler from earlier?"
"Exactly."
Facing Nami's shock, Zoro's thoughtful expression, and Luffy's baffled face, Roman raised the Bounty Poster in his hand.
"'Hundred Plans' Kuro, captain of the Black Cat Pirates."
"Cunning and ruthless, willing to do anything to achieve his goals. He once slaughtered a town of a thousand people..."
"Rumor says he was captured and executed by the Marines three years ago. But I happen to know that this guy merely faked his death to escape."
Roman tilted his head toward the mansion they had just left, an eerie smile at the corner of his mouth.
"I never expected him to be hiding in a place like this. In just two years, he earned the trust of everyone around him, then 'killed off' the master of the house. Next, he only needs to let Miss Kaya 'die of illness.' Then he can obtain a great fortune and peacefully live out the rest of his life. Brilliant~~~"
Although Roman could no longer remember the plot clearly, pirates existed to take the blame anyway, didn't they?
In any case, the other man really was after Miss Kaya's inheritance.
"W-what..."
"Could Kaya's parents have been—"
"What evidence do you have?"
Facing Usopp, whose forehead was instantly covered in cold sweat, Roman curled his lip.
"Evidence?"
"Kid, are you misunderstanding something?"
"I'm a pirate, not a Marine! What do I need evidence for—"
Roman stepped forward and stuffed the Bounty Poster into Usopp's trembling hands.
"At the end of the day, that girl Kaya and I are complete strangers. Never mind having a vicious pirate lurking at her side. Even if she died right in front of me, what would that have to do with me?"
"The reason I told you about this is only because I thought—"
Roman lowered his head and softly breathed a few words into Usopp's ear.
"It would be fun."
Before you continue