"Hey, Orange-girl, where's Zoro?" Luffy asked, looking around the street.
"That's what I was going to ask you!" She turned around, stepping directly in front of Luffy with an exasperated huff. "I thought he was following you!" Her eyes flicked down the dark, unfamiliar avenues, her brows knitting together. She crossed her arms and forced a sharp, irritated scowl across her face, but her right hand gave her away. Her thumb rhythmically scraped the smooth varnish of her wooden staff, her knuckles white against the grip. Her eyes flicked toward every intersection, scanning the crowd as her jaw tightened.
Nami crossed her arms, turning to the long-nosed boy. "Also, who even are you, anyway? And why were you performing inside a bar with children?"
"I am the great Captain Usopp!" he declared, though he quickly lowered his voice when Nami glared at him. "And these are my brave recruits" as he waved to the three children on his side.
"So… you are a beggar?" Nami confusingly looks up and down at Usopp.
"A beggar?! No! I am a performer!" he put his fist to his side as he looked into the empty sky
"Shishishishi! This guy's crazy!" As Luffy clapped.
"... but wait, you lost a teammate?" Usopp quickly unfroze his body, slumping back to his normal form. He looked toward the dark avenues stretching across the plateau.
"Look, the streets get confusing at night," Usopp said, turning to the three young boys behind him. "Ninjin, Piiman, Tamanegi—you guys head home right now. School starts tomorrow morning, and your parents will skin me alive if they catch you out past midnight."
"Aww, but Captain—!" Tamanegi protested.
"Ahh ahh ahh! No 'buts!" Usopp commanded, offering a firm nod. "I'll help these guys find their lost friend. Now march!"
The three kids saluted in unison, spun on their heels, and bolted down the gas-lit street toward the lower district. With the sound of pattering footsteps fading into the distance, the four of them fell into a steady stride down the central thoroughfare. The sea breeze cut through the avenue, carrying the sharp, resinous tang of pine from the forested cliffs above.
"What does my dad say about me?" Usopp broke the quiet, his gaze fixed straight ahead.
"Told you earlier!" Luffy swung his arm in wide, lazy circles, the wind whistling through his sleeves. "He keeps saying you're my age, and that he can't wait to see you again! Why? Doesn't he ever come back to visit?" Usopp's chin dipped toward his collarbone. A heavy exhale rattled in his chest, sending a thin cloud of mist into the night air.
"Technically... yeah," Usopp muttered, his boots dragging against the cobblestones. "Once every five years." He pulled his foot back and nudged a stray pebble, watching it skitter into the gutter.
"I was eleven the last time he stood in the same room as me," he said, his voice dropping an octave. "Mom used to tell me stories while she mended our dried clothes. Said he started out just like anyone else around here—working construction, repairing roofs and ships. But he had an eye for a sightline. She said he had the greatest shot on the island! Even this town created a monthly sharpshooting range because of him! but… Right up until a crew with red sails anchored in the bay."
Usopp's shoulder hitched. His left hand drifted into his pocket, his fingers wrapping so tightly around a pair of worn silver coins that the metal edges bit into his palm.
"When Mom got a fever… The house got quiet," he continued, staring at his own shadow stretching along the stone.
"I ran to every clinic on the harbor. Dragged three different doctors up that hill by their coats. But by the time the third one checked her..." He paused, swallowing hard as a single bead of sweat welled at the corner of his lashes, catching the faint amber glow of a passing lamppost before slipping down his cheek. "The doctor said she's already dead."
He cleared his throat, pushing his shoulders back. "Three hours after we covered her face and the ambulance pulled her, the front door opened. It was him." A small, faint twitch pulled at the corner of Usopp's mouth—not quite a smile, but the shadow of one.
"We dug her grave together on the cliff behind the house. He stayed here for three days straight. He said he missed the town, and people also recognize him as this sort of hero. There, he showed me how to bait a line without snapping the leader, how to scrub the salt off the floorboards, and how to line up a shot when the wind's blowing sideways." He pauses, his head tilting as the wind passes through his nose
"During those days, I've felt… the warmth of having someone by my side… that I wish… he stays with me. Watch me grow up… "Ya know… watch me have my own kids!" he laughs, flicking his fingers up. Usopp stopped in his tracks, his leather-wrapped fingers tightening into a white-knuckled fist around the coins in his pocket. He looked up at the moonlit sky, his chest heaving as he forced his voice steady.
"Before he pulled the skiff, he looked back at me and said, 'Become a brave warrior of the sea.'" Usopp turned to Luffy, his eyes sharp and burning through the dim light. "I don't hate him for leaving. How could I? I want the same horizon he saw, to live the same story I keep telling people. I keep training, I keep shooting, because that day maybe I will see him again... I'm going to stand on that deck and make him look up at me."
A few paces back, Nami strides behind the two boys like a wounded kitten. A cold knot bound itself deep in her throat, her fingernails digging into her palms until her skin stung. Her gaze dropped to the dark cobblestones, her breath shallow and sharp. Must be nice. For a fleeting second, the street disappeared into a blur, replaced by several flashing ghosts of her memory. Voices that she hadn't heard for years played into her mind like a vinyl record.
"HEY, LOOK! A WAGON!" Luffy's booming voice shattered her trance, snapping the world back into focus and slapping her guarded facade back in place like fresh paint.
At a distance, a sudden commotion echoed from a wide avenue three blocks ahead.
Metallic clanging, shouting voices, and the heavy thud of wooden wheels rattled through the night air. A harsh red-and-blue lantern glow pulsed against the brick buildings as a heavy, iron-plated wagon with a large painting on its side named Enforcer Wagon—pulled by a pair of massive, armored draft beasts—rumbled to a halt near the edge of the central square. The three quickly ran towards it, each with a different look on their face and different theories.
"What's going on over there?" Usopp muttered behind the walls of people looking at him.
"Some sort of criminal got caught yet again… they say it was the Beast of Port Wagon this time,"One old man muttered at Usopp's side.
"The Beast Of Port Wagon?! Isn't it disproven by now?" he yelped.
Luffy and Nami followed closely behind. As they broke through the ring of onlookers, Nami's breath hitched. Surrounding the rear of the heavy iron wagon were four armed officers wearing dark brown law enforcement uniforms, their brass badges gleaming under the lantern light. Holding heavy flintlock rifles, they stood guard as two larger officers dragged a figure out of the alleyway in heavy, iron-forged chains.
It was Zoro. His three scabbards had been stripped from his hip, and thick iron shackles bound his wrists and ankles together, clanking loudly against the stone. Blood stained his dark green trousers, though it clearly wasn't his own.
"ZORO!" Luffy yelled, his eyes widening. Without a second thought, he took a step back, his fists clenching as his arms stretched back, ready to hurl himself at the officers and smash the iron wagon into splinters.
"Hold on, Luffy—!" Nami gasped, reaching out to grab him, but Zoro's sharp glare cut through the crowd before she could reach him. Zoro's head snapped toward them. His single visible eye burned with a dark, lethal intensity, locking directly onto Luffy. Luffy froze, his stretched arms snapping back to his sides with a heavy thwip. He gritted his teeth, his straw hat casting a deep shadow over his eyes as he watched the officers shove Zoro into the back of the reinforced iron wagon. The heavy iron door slammed shut with a deafening CLANG, locked securely with a thick brass padlock.
"Get moving! Clear the street!" one of the senior officers shouted, brandishing a baton at the crowd. The Enforcer Wagon lurched forward, its iron-rimmed wheels grinding against the cobblestones as it escorted its high-profile prisoner up the winding road toward the island's stone plateau.
"KILL THAT MAN!"
"Finally! The Beast of Port Wagon had been captured! Thank you, officer!" Collections of voices through the crowd echo through the cold night. The echoes of the laughter and desperate voices echo back to Nami in Orange Town. She clenched her hand, her brow frowning. "These fucking people…
"Why didn't he let us fight?!" Luffy growled, staring at the retreating wagon.
"Because fighting the police in the middle of the street makes us official criminals across the entire island, you idiot!" Nami hissed, though her face was pale. She turned to the whispering crowd, catching snippets of their frantic conversation"of the people that have remained: "...found him over the lawyer's body..." "...sliced clean through..." "...it's that Pirate Hunter..."
As Luffy and Usopp whispered in her left ear, her right ear scanned everything. From the sound of the breathing of an old lady nearby to the sound of their accessories swinging in the air. Her eyes lowered like a curtain. Each piece of information inside the head began to stitch to the others like a puzzle.
"He got caught at a crime scene," she whispered tightly. "If we break him out by force, we become hunted fugitives in a town with a fully functional law enforcement network. We need to go to the police station."
"W-Wwait… the police station?"He cut off the two. His face is full of sweat Ï know the way! It is several blocks away from here!" Usopp began to run towards the empty streets, away from the crowd of people. Ï know a shortcut!" as Luffy and Nami ran along with him.
After several minutes of passing through the maze of backstreets, guided by a visibly shaken Usopp, the trio arrived at the island's administrative district—A wide plaza full of wagons, people, and other towering, marvelous architecture. Rising before them was a grand, Victorian-style police headquarters—an imposing structure built from dark granite, featuring tall arched windows, wrought-iron railings, and a massive brass bell tower.
"There!" Usopp pointed, leading the way toward the grand entrance of the police station. The colossal iron gates towered over them, leaving Luffy's mouth agape as he stared up at the archway. Stepping inside, the polished tile floor with a giant chandelier resting atop, with a golden shower of light casting below them, makes them out of place. Directly ahead sat a high, imposing reception desk beneath a brass sign that read: SYRUP TOWN FEDERAL OFFICE.
"Stay here," Nami whispered sharply, nudging Luffy behind a stone pillar before he could cause a scene. She took a soft breath, adjusted her collar, and instantly let her shoulders slump. Her sharp, calculating demeanor melted away, replaced by a trembling posture and wide, glossy eyes brimming with unshed tears. A tall, broad-shouldered guard in a high-collared blue uniform stepped up behind the counter, restlessly shuffling a stack of papers.
"U-Uhh… hello there, sir," Nami stammered, her voice small and fragile, cutting through the quiet office. The guard looked up, intending to bark at an intruder, but froze as he met her gaze. Nami wrung her hands together, biting her lower lip as her shoulders shook with a delicate, suppressed sob. She leaned against the front of the desk, looking up through her lashes at the guard with an unstoppable wave of her lashes.
"I—I'm so sorry to disturb you, officer," she whimpered softly, wiping a stray tear from her cheek. "I just... I drove in from the uhh…" As she was standing there, her mind flashed through earlier interactions. Everything she saw from the town for now. And then, something clicked inside. A street sign loomed above as she accidentally gazed upon it during their passing through different alleyways and streets to go to the office.
"...Edunburg district over as soon as I heard. Please, you have to help me." The guard cleared his throat, his stern posture softening as he leaned forward over the counter. "Easy there, miss. What's the matter?"
"My brother..." Nami choked on the word, a trembling hand pressing against her sternum as her breathing hitched into ragged, desperate gasps. Her eyes welled over, spilling heavy tears that trickled down her cheeks and splashed onto the polished wooden desk. Her knees buckled slightly, her posture collapsing into a shuddering sob that echoed off the high, vaulted ceiling. "He's completely innocent… he was framed, I know it!"
A few paces back, hidden behind a thick granite pillar, the two boys watched the theatrical tragedy unfold across the pristine floor.
"What is she doing? Why is she crying all of a sudden? Is she alright?!" Usopp hissed, ducking his head behind Luffy.
"Nah, she's fine!" Luffy grinned, watching with total admiration. "When she does that, problems just solve themselves! So I always let her do it."
"Why?!" Usopp stared at him, his brow furrowing like rough bark.
"I don't know!" Luffy chuckled softly.
Usopp searched Luffy's blissfully blank face for a long, silent ten seconds. "You two don't even know each other that well, do you?"
"Nope!" Luffy replied instantly with a broad, toothy smile. "I met her at a Marine base, and then I ran into her at a circus! She told me she's a navigator!"
"A navigator? Where do you even need a navigator?"
"To cross the sea, obviously! I'm building a pirate crew!"
"A PIRATE CREW?!" Usopp choked, his jaw dropping to his chest. "SO YOU'RE A PIRATE?!"
"Yep!"
"So that means..." Usopp swallowed hard, pointing a trembling finger toward the basement stairs.
"Also yep! Zoro's my right-hand man!"
Back at the counter, Nami was bringing her performance home.
"Please, sir," she whimpered softly, stepping closer to the high desk and resting her hand gently over the officer's sleeve, her wide, glossy eyes brimming with tears. "Could I just... see him for a single moment? Just to make sure he's alive? I don't know what I'd do if something happened to him…"
The lingering patrons in the lobby began turning their heads, murmuring in sympathy. The guard, feeling every eye in the station burning into his back, released a heavy, defeated sigh. He glanced down at her trembling fingers, then back at her tear-stained cheeks, scratching the back of his neck in awkward hesitation. "Well... official protocol strictly forbids visitors after dark… Especially for Juvenile " the guard muttered, his voice dropping into a hushed, sympathetic tone as his hand drifted toward a heavy brass key ring on his belt. "But... I suppose a quick peek down the row wouldn't hurt. Just keep it quiet, alright?"
"Oh, bless you! Thank you so much!" Nami gasped, her face lighting up with instant, tearful relief. Nami quickly wiped her tears and looked back towards the two, her eyes still red from the performance she had given. The guard unclipped a brass key ring from his belt and led them through a heavy iron doorway into a massive, cavernous cellblock, where rows of iron cages were stacked directly on top of one another along the stone walls.
"Is your brother in this section?" the guard asked, glancing back over his shoulder. Nami's eyes swept across the shadowy cages, taking in every face, every scarred mug, every low-life inmate—but saw no sign of green hair. She turned back to the guard, shaking her head with a small, worried frown.
"N-No, sir... he has bright green hair and carries three swords on his hip!" The moment the words left her lips, the guard's sympathetic expression instantly hardened. He stopped dead in his tracks, his posture going rigid.
"Wait a minute, miss… your brother is 'Pirate Hunter' Roronoa Zoro?!"
Nami's jaw set hard, but she forced a quick, desperate nod. That idiotic, green-haired fool! How does every cop in the East Blue know your name?! The guard stared at her for a long, heavy second, his grip tightening around his heavy key ring. He let out a low grunt, turning on his heel. "Follow me."
He led the group down a narrow stone staircase into the deep basement. Stopping before a heavy iron gate, he selected a long, double-notched key from his ring, slid it deep into the keyhole, and turned it with a loud, metallic CLACK. Nami didn't look at the dark cellblock ahead. Her eyes were locked with laser precision on his hands—tracking the shape, the notches, and every single movement of that key.
They took a stone staircase that seemed to drag on forever. At the bottom, a heavy iron gate blocked the way. The guard unlocked it with a loud metallic rattle, revealing a damp corridor that felt less like a prison and more like an underground dungeon. As the group walked down the passage, eyes burned into them from behind the bars. In one cell, a man with a jagged forehead scar glared silently at Usopp. In another, a prisoner pressed his face against the iron grates, his vision traced through Nami's shoulder into her exposed thigh.
"Hey, chief! You finally bring me something nice to look at? These old magazines are driving me crazy! HAHAHAHA!"
Nami didn't even turn her head, keeping her eyes fixed straight ahead as they kept walking. At the very end of the row sat Zoro. He was cross-legged on the cold stone floor, his hands resting heavily in his lap beneath thick iron chains, his eyes closed as if he were completely alone in the world.
"Zoro!" Luffy slammed his hands against the iron bars, staring at his swordsman. "What happened?!"
"I got lost," Zoro grunted, not opening his eyes. "Found a body in an alley, and before I could walk away, a twitchy cop put a barrel to my head."
"We can appeal this, right?" Nami asked, turning to the stone-faced precinct sergeant standing at the end of the corridor. "He just arrived on this island tonight! He doesn't even know anyone here!"
The sergeant exhaled a cloud of tobacco smoke from his pipe, leaning against his desk. "It doesn't matter, Miss. We found him standing over the victim, who is a prominent estate lawyer with blood on his clothes. Not to mention, there is a slash mark found on the walls. Not to mention the giant elephant in the room that your brother... is none other than the 'Pirate Hunter' Roronoa Zoro, local protocol dictates immediate containment."
Zoro's eyes quickly rise, looking directly straight into Nami and the officer, "Brother?!
The sergeant pulled a worn leather notebook from behind his duty belt, flipping to a bookmarked page as he began to read aloud:
"Under Article 22 of the Detrimental Criminal Imprisonment Act, Syrup Village operates under autonomous municipal law—meaning we lack the supreme judicial authority to try high-bounty or high-risk wanderers on site. Therefore, in accordance with regional maritime law, the suspect will be detained in this cell for three to four days until a regional Marine patrol cutter arrives from the nearest branch to assume custody. Until then, I am sorry, miss... but your brother will be executed or imprisoned by the marines"
"Executed?!" Luffy's voice dropped, a dangerous edge creeping into his tone. "We're not waiting three days for some Marines to take my swordsman and kill him!"
"Luffy, quiet!" Nami snapped, placing a firm hand on his shoulder before turning to the sergeant. "Can we at least see the evidence? The crime scene?"
"Investigation is restricted to official personnel," the sergeant replied. "Unless new, indisputable evidence proves otherwise before the Marine ship docks, his fate will still be the same." The sergeant began to walk back to where they came from. He then uses his head to nod, pointing to the door in the distance. "C'mon kiddos, it's one thirty in the morning! Do you even have school to attend tomorrow?"
Luffy and Usopp began to follow the sergeant, but Luffy stood in front of Zoro's cell, his eyes looking at him. "I will free you…" He whispered. Zoro only smirked, and his head began to wobble
"This kind of life is a luxury for me. C'mon, go on, Luffy. I will wait for you outside." Outside the massive police office, the three stood on the front steps of the Victorian police station at the center of the large district. He looked up at the moonlit sky, his face completely devoid of its smile as his fists clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white.
"Zoro didn't kill anybody," Luffy said, his voice terrifyingly calm. He turned his head, his dark eyes locking onto Nami and Usopp.
"We're going to find out who really did it," Luffy declared, his voice ringing with absolute certainty. "We're solving this ourselves."