Ch-16

The battle between Zoro and Mihawk ensued but unluckily Usopp could no longer witness it because the Going Merry had already sailed a distance of more than a nautical mile from the Baratie thanks to the strong winds and currents.

Nami was busy navigating and manoeuvring the vessel because of the sudden change in the weather while Usopp just sat on the crow's nest chilling. The place was quite congested but Nami was not always going to be on the deck.

At night when Nami relieved herself and went to rest Usopp finally sneaked out of the top and went to the kitchen. After filling up his stomach he went to the place where he normally used to sleep. Thinking of it now, this was a much better place to be in and he had been suffering in the cold wind for all these hours for nothing.

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"Santouryuu Ougi!" Zoro said with a bleeding wound on his chest as he prepared himself to counter the final attack from Mihawk.

Mihawk who was about to take Zoro's life with his sword got stunned for a millisecond as the aura emitted by Zoro who was at his limit reminded him of a person he had faced before. The moment it did, Mihawk held back with the intensity of his strike making sure not to kill Zoro with it.

'So, this was the kid you were talking about,' Mihawk said to himself as he slashed diagonally on Zoro's chest making his body fall backwards into the sea.

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The days on the ship felt very long to Usopp as he was trapped in this single room with nothing to do so after lazing off for a few hours he decided to concentrate his energy on something useful. He sat down in a meditation position and started focusing his mind.

Initially, he was trying to create a mental image of the room with 100% accuracy in his mind. This was something he was having a lot of trouble doing and frustrated him a lot but he kept on trying because he knew that everyone could learn Haki and there was no way he won't succeed if he kept on trying.

The sailing continued for a week and during all this time Usopp made sure to not be caught by Nami. His relationship with Nami wasn't that strong at this point since he had joined the crew not a long time so he felt it was better for him to only make his appearance after they had reached the island.

The progress in his Haki training was going well for Usopp as by the sixth day he was able to picture the whole room in his mind with all the little details in his mind with his eyes closed. It did take a lot of his efforts to reach this point but if not for his belief in the Haki's existence he doubted that he would be able to do such a thing in his earlier life even after a year of practising.

On the sixth day, the ship finally reached the Conomi islands. After docking the ship at a suitable place which was not far from the village Nami exited the ship with the treasures while giving a last glance at the ship. The cheerful moments she spent with the straw hats once again flashed in her mind as she bit her lips and turned around.

Usopp who was watching Nami leave from the small opening of the door took a sigh of relief as he massaged his stomach. He had not eaten food for almost four days by now and was starving like anything. Initially, he was able to easily steal the food from the kitchen but after two days he realized that with the amount of food remaining if he took anymore then Nami would start getting suspicious.

In the end, he decided to take small bits of what was important before retreating to his room below the deck. Like this, he spent the rest of his days hoping for the island to arrive as soon as possible.

Usopp left the Going Merry where it was and looked around. Since the only thing in his mind currently was food, his eyes automatically got drawn to the orchard that was at a distance but not too far from him.

The orange dots pulled him towards themselves as his mouth started watering up. Without any second thought, Usopp rushed towards the place. The scent coming from the tangerines was becoming stronger and stronger the closer he reached which in turn further raised his appetite.

His hands reached for a tangerine and without bothering to remove the skin he shoved it into his mouth. The sour taste of the outer cover at first made him want to spit it out but soon enough the sweet taste of the tangerine aroused his taste buds and made him appreciate the fruit more than he ever had in his past life.

As he munched on the fruit his hand reached for another one and started peeling off its outer skin this time in order to taste it at its finest. He was not at all disappointed with the taste and kept on shoving one peeled tangerine in his mouth after another as if he got addicted to its taste.

"And who might you be?" A voice sounded from behind Usopp making him turn his head behind.

A beautiful figure of a blue-haired woman appeared in front of his eyes. It was Nojiko and she was currently pointing a rake at him. Usopp raised his hand and showed her his index finger indicating to her to wait for a minute as he quickly chewed on all the tangerines that were in his mouth so that he could speak.

After emptying his mouth of everything, he said "Sorry about that…I didn't eat anything for four days and the first thing I saw after coming here was this orchard."

Looking at the weird man whose mouth a few seconds ago was filled with almost a dozen of tangerines Nojiko got confused about whether to consider him a threat or not. It was only after Usopp told her about him not eating for so many days that she let her guard down and invited him to her house like a good Samaritan.

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