The Sennenryuu and Usopp's New Toys

Going Merry, close to the Red Line.

Usopp was again shocked at the adaptability of his crew with regards to fighting. He had sparred with both Zoro and Sanji at the same time, but it took him a little more than 5 minutes to take them down. It is to be noted that he was a 2nd rank Yonko commander equivalent in strength and Observation Haki, even taking into account the strength raise of such individuals due to an Awakened Devil Fruit. Supernova rookies would usually get KO'ed by such existences immediately, but even then the two persisted for a long time. He also taught them how to use [impact] on their attacks or use it as a reference for these attacks.

Sanji's kicks powered up the most as his kicks were strong enough to fight against armed Vice-Admiral candidates, after he innovated the [Diable Jambe] style fortified by [impact].

Zoro on the other hand tried to comprehend the foundation behind the impacts to delve into the true understanding of the 'Breath of All Things'. He had drastically reduced the time required for focusing on techniques at the level of cutting steel and flying slash, which also increased his control over his strength.

Their upgrades solidly put them at a level of 2800 dourikis on strength and thus had the ability to take on a Vice Admiral existence and defeat those at the bottom of the Vice Admiral ranks. A training machine for increasing training efficiency of [Steel Scales] was also made, because of which their passive defense rivaled that of Jabra actively using Tekkai.

Usopp on the other hand had been training in a masochistic fashion, 5 Rejects per hour along with [Steel Scales] made his passive defense as strong as a 8000 Douriki level Vice Admiral focusing on actively using Tekkai. On top of that, the other three also had to suffer from the random attacks of an impact dial. With such an exposure to the fighting methods of the sky, Usopp also was on the cusp of evolving his [Impact Series] to the [Reject Series] of techniques, which could rival rokuougan in power.

Nami had nominally awakened her Observation Haki and was undergoing simple tests to consolidate it at basic level.

Luffy on the other hand was undergoing the worst training of them all. He was given a training suit that fit his normal human dimensions and fine tuned for intense exercise. The catch was that he had to do it while wearing Seastone shackles. Needless to say, it was proving to be a challenging undertaking, to say the least. Luffy's spirit was being strengthened slowly and its results would only be seen after a long while.

With these training exercises, the crew was slowly developing its strength in the direction of becoming a worthy New World class crew.

...

Usopp had taken these two days to upgrade the guns he bought to a satisfying degree. The rifles he had 'borrowed' from the Marines were used as a prototype became strong enough to penetrate a 5 mm steel plate. Putting that into perspective, it would kill all CP9 Agents except the top 3 if it hits. But the bullets' velocity was lacking even against a veteran ensign of the Marines, much less a commissioned officer.

Hence Usopp used the magic of the dials into action. He revamped the entire rifle structure and the jet dial was used for propulsion. Rifling was also done and calibrated, and a sniper scope fit for a modern tactical sniper rifle was added. He repainted the entire weapon in a matte black and gold with silver engravings on the stock which showed the Straw Hat's Jolly Roger. It was good enough to take down large sized Sea Kings, when coated with Haki. He named it [Fear], as a reminder for him to remain human.

As for the pistol, it became even more of a monster due to its mechanism. The caliber was increased to a level that it could be called a hand cannon and the propulsion used was the Reject Dial. This made the gun evolve into a human rights violation. There were only few people in the world who could fire it, much less using it as a sidearm. The stock was decorated with ornate silver designs and fashioned similar designs on the both the sides of the barrel. The only downside was that without Haki, the gun would require a lot of maintenance. He named it [despair] to remind himself to always defend the crew from despair.

Usopp also felt the need to incorporate the [Impact] techniques into the bullets and further creating a bridge for using the [hammer series] and [Punisher series] techniques through it. Thus he set out to restart his training in long range fighting techniques.

...

The entire crew was in a face off against 18 Marine Ships of the 8th Branch under the leadership of Commodore Nelson Royale. Nelson had no strength to speak of but his excellent strategies kept him in the Marines as a commissioned Officer. The Straw Hats were caught in one such masterpiece worthy move and thus were surrounded in a circular formation of ships which were connected to each other with thick iron chains.

The entire event was the final point of a series of events that happened a few days after they left Loguetown. They found a girl named Apis drifting out at sea, who turned out to be hiding a Sennnenryu in the mountain behind her backyard. In an effort to send the senile dragon home, the crew started to help. At first the Marines were scared of fighting against the notorious crew but greed overcame the fear quickly. The mercenary that accompanied them was sent packing by Zoro before he started to show off and their investigations finally made them realize that the Island only appeared once every thousand years.

Bringing the Sennenryuu back to the Warship Island was the only task remaining for them when they were surrounded by the fleet. But it was not the the Straw Hats' turn to sweat.

"Luffy, protect the dragon...I'll deal with the mobs myself."

Usopp took out [Fear] and jumped into the crow's nest to take his sniping location. As he took his position, the Flag ship started to aim its main gun at the Going Merry. Usopp always made sure to destroy any and all threats to the Going Merry other than his own crew, and that cannon wasn't an exception.

"The first battle for my rifle should at least have such casualties. As a thanks, I present [Fear] as a gift to you, Gentlemen."

The weather was perfect and the there were not problems regarding visibility. The gun's greaves felt like it had been his partner for a long time, designed for carnage. He raised the gun's barrel and aimed it at the Main Cannon of the enemy and focused his will onto the gun, which turned black with a tinge of violet.

"[Armament Hardening]!"

The moment he felt his observation Haki reacting, Usopp pressed the trigger, which connected to the jet dial that propelled the bullet into the cannon.

Commodore Nelson was sitting comfortably while he gave the order to commence bombardment, but he did not expect that half of his ship was blown up in the explosion. The Straw Hats only saw the entire Ship blow up and started sinking slowly.

"[Impact Hammer]! The new and improved anti-ship type gun technique which makes all cannons go out of business!"

Usopp's training made it possible to use the impact on a projectile weapon while overlaying the Hammer series, which amplified the AOE damage to the target region. It was weaker than the slingshot technique as of now, but it was sure that he could further develop it to a technique that would deal debilitating damage to the Large Scale Battleships from HQ.

That day, Usopp used the entire 8th Branch as target practice, as he slowly destroyed the entire fleet bullet by bullet. It was mind scarring seeing an entire chunk of a ship splinter to pieces and waiting for the next bit of ship to be annihilated. Thus almost all of the sailors jumped overboard as the fleet was being reduced to scrap.

Usopp was satisfied with the modifications at mid range, and further testing and training awaited him for perfecting the long range shooting techniques. So he put away [Fear] and drew [Despair], the hand cannon in the guise of a pistol. With only one ship in sight left untouched, Usopp disappeared from the crow's nest and appeared ahead of the ship in midair. The soldiers were terrified and puzzled at the same time because the man who destroyed their entire battle strength was aiming a pistol at them.

Even though they were puzzled, they were not stupid. They immediately jumped into the sea and started running away. Usopp finally felt no presence near the ship, so the preparation to test drive [Despair] was complete.

"[Armament Hardening]! [Acceleration Impact]!"

When the trigger was pulled, the entire sea area near the impact point depressed to around 2-3 meters below the normal levels, which continued to stretch on for 50 meters. As for the ship...a few planks of wood painted turquoise green and some metal was the only thing left of it.

"..."

.

.

.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT, USOPP?!"

The sniper extraordinaire did not expect that adding a speed buff on top of Haki triggered by a Reject Dial could be that strong. When he tested it with just Haki, it did not show such extreme levels of destruction and thus thought it was a good idea to increase its velocity. Nami was the only one who could put her astonishment and horror into words, while the entire crew and Apis had their jaws dislocated at the display of power. The Marines that were swimming away just straight up rejected reality and swam away like it was none of their business.

"That was AWESOME!! Teach me to do that, Usopp!!"

Luffy snapped out of it when Usopp returned to the ship, while the others tried to register the situation completely. Zoro and Sanji knew they could do it with pure physical strength but it was impossible for them to do so with a firearm.

*BONK*

"Unless we have an emergency, that thing you call a pistol shouldn't be used! I can't believe that you said it was for fighting humans!"

An angry Nami punched him in the head, still looking pale. Usopp was still thinking of the possibilities that would exist if he amplified his [Fear] with a Reject Dial when they reach Skypeia when he was brought back into reality and was banned from using [Despair]. Nami almost had another fit of anger when she heard the gun's name, but Usopp ran away from her making an excuse of having some experiments to finish.

At that moment Luffy, Zoro and Sanji quickly restarted their training as they felt that Usopp was becoming more and more adept at large scale battles and they couldn't fight at all.

...

"Nami, the Reverse Mountain carries the sea current upwards into the mountain, so we need to concentrate on our entry or else we will be designing the walls of the Red Line."

Usopp came out and saw Nami stressing over a map, so he reminded her of the uniqueness of the Reverse Mountain. He then went over to Sanji, who was struggling with the controls and helped him stabilize the ship's movement without breaking the controls.

After a point it was useless to try and control the ship due to the current. Therefore the entire crew went on the deck to get their first look of the seas that they were going to fight on. As the ship broke the cloud cover and reached the peak, it came into their vision...

"THE GREATEST OCEAN...GRANDLINE! SOMEWHERE OUT THERE LAYS THE GREATEST TREASURE OF THEM ALL...ONE PIECE! LET'S GO!!!"

...