Free Heart

Ch. 12 - I am the Help.

True to the navigator's estimate, Luffy and his crew arrived on the shores of a new island right as the morning sun took its place in the sky. Luffy and Zoro each dragged a boat onto the sand. Nami jumped off the boat herself while Luffy helped Emmy off. When her feet touched the shore, Emmy put her hand over mouth to cover a delicate yawn.

Zoro let out a very masculine one and stretched his arms over his head. "Finally...on dry land again..."

Luffy ran inland a little more and he looked around excitedly. The shores were surrounded by rocky cliffs with grass and trees growing at the top of it. There was a steep slope that was carved through the cliffs that led inland. "Do you think there's a town here?"

"Yeah, but it's going to be a small one," Nami answered.

Emmy took a deep breath, enjoying the fragrance of clean, tree-filled air, and she smiled. "It smells so nice and it feels so quiet too. If I close my eyes, I can pretend I'm back on Dawn Island."

Luffy's nose twitched and he started to drool. "Yeah...that means there'll be food. Meat. Meat. Meat. Meat."

"That's not what she meant at all!" Nami snapped.

Without warning, the swordsman took two steps forward with his hand on his sword. "Careful," he said, his eyes narrowing, "I sense someone here."

"Really?" Luffy shouted, taking the less cautious approach, and whipped his head around left and right, "Where? Where? Where? Where? Where?"

Zoro's eyes widened and they snapped to Luffy's feet. "Look out!'

Suddenly, the sand around the rubber boy's sandals were kicked up by incoming shrapnel. Luffy hopped from one foot to another, trying to avoid getting hit. Nami ran back to the boat for cover while Zoro hurriedly pulled Emmy behind him.

The leaves along the edge of the cliffs rustled violently and then a long row of black pirate flags were raised from the bushes. They waved in the wind over the pirates' heads.

"Eh?!" Luffy yelled, "SO COOL!"

"Is this the time to be impressed?!" Nami exclaimed as she peeked over the edge of her boat.

"Hahahaha!"

A loud laugh sailed out from the bushes and a boy stepped forward in front of the pirate flag in the center of the row. He folded his arms over his chest and stuck his unusually long nose in the air. "I am Usopp, leader of the great pirate who reign over this village! People praise me...then they praise me more as 'Captaaaaaiiiiin Usopp'!"

Emmy went up on her toes to glance over Zoro's shoulder at this "great pirate".

"He's lying," she whispered to the swordsman.

"Of course he is," Zoro muttered, "But why are we whispering about this?"

Emmy poked Zoro in the shoulder to get him to look at her and then she pointed over at her brother, who was taking in every word like gospel.

"If you're thinking of attacking this village, then forget it!" Usopp yelled, "My 80 million subordinate won't sit by quietly!"

"AWESOME!" Luffy shouted at the top of his lungs.

"You're lying, aren't you?" Nami called out from the boat and Usopp's hands flew to the top of his yellow bandana tied hair.

"Yikes! She saw through it!" the long nosed boy shrieked.

"See? You admitted it," the crafty thief smirked.

Usopp started to wriggle with panic and shame. "Nooooo. I admitted it to herrrr," he cried.