Listening to Nami, Luffy and the other two looked puzzled. They all walked over and picked up the wanted poster and letters she had found to read them.
The three had different expressions after reading the letters. Luffy looked utterly baffled; clearly, he had not understood what they said.
Zoro looked indifferent, apparently not very interested in what the letters said either.
Lastly, there was Liu Qing. After reading the letters, he had another idea. He looked at Luffy, Zoro, and Nami and said, "Hasn't our ship just come knocking? These letters confirm that this pirate crew's captain wants to seize a young lady's family fortune. He was even willing to spend three years preparing for it. Her family must have a ship we can sail. Let's expose this captain's disguise and ruin his plan. Then asking the young lady to give us a ship wouldn't be too much, would it?"
Nami thought for a moment and said, "I think that could work."
"Then let's go! Liu Qing, hurry up and make a little boat. Let's get there fast," Luffy said casually.
Liu Qing gave a mischievous grin and said, "Heh heh heh, hold on. Let me get ready. There's no need to build another boat. We'll take this ship."
"Wood Release: Multiple Wood Clones! Transformation Technique!" Once again, Liu Qing transformed all his clones into members of the Black Cat Pirates.
"We're the new Black Cat Pirates now. Take these old crew members into the hold first. Then we'll go meet Captain Kuro, who hasn't shown his face in three years. Heh heh heh!" Liu Qing directed his clones as they worked.
Watching Liu Qing, both Luffy and Zoro wore wicked grins. Only Nami had no idea what was happening. She had not seen them play tricks on Captain Morgan last time, so she looked completely bewildered.
"All right, Nami, set our course. Let's go meet this ship's captain." Then he turned to the clones and shouted, "Set sail!"
Meanwhile, in Syrup Village.
Usopp was still repeating his lies every day.
"Oh no! Oh no!"
"Pirates!!! Pirates are coming!!!"
"Pirates are attacking the village!!! Everyone, run for your lives!!!"
With those desperate cries, the residents of Syrup Village knew a new day had begun.
"Hey, Usopp, you're up awfully early today," some people working in the fields said with a laugh.
"You little bastard, don't wake people up first thing in the morning! If I catch you, I'll teach you a lesson!" Of course, some of the more hot-tempered villagers rushed out of their houses and yelled at Usopp.
But practically nobody in the village believed claims like "Pirates are coming."
Usopp had curly hair and wore a brown bandanna and brown overalls.
Of course, his most striking feature was the long nose he had inherited from his mother. Every day, he was either telling lies or on his way to tell them.
Usopp's father was, in fact, a pirate through and through. Although he knew full well that his wife was pregnant, his deep longing for a pirate's life and his yearning for freedom made him leave his family without hesitation and throw himself into the raging seas.
He firmly believed that the pirate flag was calling to him, an irresistible force. And so, he resolutely embarked on his journey as a pirate, giving no consideration at all to his family's feelings.
However, years of hard work gradually weakened Usopp's mother. While Usopp was still young, she could no longer get out of bed and walk, and could only lie in bed all day.
To give his mother some hope and courage in life, Usopp went to the shore every morning and quietly gazed out over the vast sea. Then, as always, he hurried back to the village and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Pirates are coming! Pirates are coming!"
It was not because pirates were actually attacking, but because Usopp wanted to make his mother believe there were still things in life worth looking forward to. He hoped this little lie would give her the will to keep living.
Yet fate was always so cruel. One day, Usopp's mother finally departed this world. Before she died, she told Usopp that she had no regrets about her life and had never resented his father.
She told Usopp, "A man should bravely pursue his dreams and venture out onto the sea." Her words were deeply etched into Usopp's heart.
From then on, Usopp set his heart on one dream-to become a brave warrior of the sea. Like his father, he wanted to become the bravest warrior on the ocean.
Today, after his usual routine of shouting "Pirates are coming," Usopp did not go to Syrup Village's villa district. Instead, he took Radish Head, Green Pepper Head, and Onion Head to the shore to watch the sea and play pirates.
Just as they grew tired of playing and were about to rest, Radish Head suddenly spotted a pirate ship out at sea and hurriedly called Usopp over. "Captain Usopp, come look! Isn't that a pirate ship out there? It's heading our way, too!"
Usopp hurried over to look and inwardly cried, This is bad! "Radish Head, Green Pepper Head, Onion Head, hurry back and warn the villagers. Tell them pirates are heading for the village and they need to find somewhere to hide."
Onion Head looked at Usopp and asked, "What about you, Captain Usopp?"
Usopp's legs shook, but he still put on a brave front. "Hurry up and go. I'll stop them here." Then, without waiting for the three children, he jumped straight onto a stone pillar.
Before long, Liu Qing and the others finally reached the shore of Syrup Village and stopped the pirate ship. The shipload of clones, along with Hashirama, Luffy, and the others, disembarked in a great procession.
Hiding atop the stone pillar, Usopp watched dozens upon dozens of people come off the ship. He was so frightened that he could barely speak. Trembling, he shouted at Luffy and the others, "Stop! This is the territory of the great pirate Captain Usopp! Leave right now, or my thirty million men will attack!"
At Usopp's words, Luffy's eyes lit up and he cried, "That's amazing! You've actually got thirty million men!"
Seeing that someone had actually believed him, Usopp could not help growing smug. "Of course! Hurry up and leave. I'll let you off this time."
Zoro said with a swagger, "We're the Black Cat Pirates. Our captain is Kuro, with a bounty of sixteen million Beli. Get out of the way if you know what's good for you, or we won't be so polite."
The moment Usopp heard the captain's name, the name of Kaya's butler flashed through his mind. His name seemed to be Kuro, too.
Before Usopp could ask anything, Liu Qing stepped forward and asked, "Does that name sound familiar? Heh heh heh... That's right, it's exactly who you're thinking of. We're planning to slaughter the whole village today and seize the fortunes in the villa district. Heh heh heh!"
Those words frightened Usopp so badly that his legs gave out and he collapsed to the ground, on the verge of bursting into tears.
At that moment, Nami rolled her eyes at Liu Qing and Zoro, then said to Usopp, "All right, all right. We may be pirates, but we're not here to rob you. We're here to help your village. We encountered the people on this ship while we were sailing. They tried to rob us, but they lost, and we captured them. Then we discovered that they were planning to target a young lady's household on this island. As for us, we don't have a pirate ship of our own, so we came to help you out and see if the rich young lady on the hilltop could give us a large sailing ship."
As she spoke, she handed Usopp the letter they had found on Jango for him to read, then took him into the Black Cat Pirates' hold to look at the tied-up pirate lackeys.
After looking, Usopp finally believed Nami. Then he looked at the people who were identical to the pirates tied up in the hold and asked, "What's going on with these people, then? Why are there so many identical people?"
Liu Qing walked over and put an arm around Usopp's shoulders. "That's my ability. Come on, let's deal with Kuro, the captain of the Black Cat Pirates, first."
Just as they were leaving, they spotted a large number of villagers approaching from a distance, carrying farming tools. Clearly, Radish Head and the others had some credibility. The villagers had believed the three children and had all come with farming tools, prepared to fight for their lives.
Before the villagers could attack, Usopp called out to stop them. Then he ran over with a wanted poster and a letter and explained everything to them.
An incense stick's worth of time later.
"Who would've thought? There was a pirate captain in our village all along, and he was after Miss Kaya's family fortune. How despicable! He even started planning it three years ago." The villagers all looked shaken by what might have happened.
"Yes, exactly. What a patient pirate. To get his hands on the family fortune, he managed to keep up such a convincing disguise. I'd always thought Kuro the butler was a good man," one villager said.
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