Chapter 8 - Syrup Village

"Mihawk, Is it ready yet?" I asked while sunbathing on the deck of the small ship.

"It should be ready in another 5 minutes." He replied calmly, his kitchen knife was moving at tremendous speed, cutting the vegetables and meats as he cooked for us.

We're about an hour away from Gecko island. And I wanted us to be well fed and recovered before docking there. Who knows what kind of trouble we might find?

A couple minutes later Mihawk, finished cooking and plated the food. He made sashimi with the fish and soup with the sea king meat and vegetables.

After the first bite and how great the food tasted I knew I had managed to find the cook of my ship.

"Woah it taste great Mihawk!" I exclaimed.

He simply nodded, and started eating as well.

"What do you think about becoming the Crews cook?" I asked.

He raised an eyebrow in thinking for a couple of second as he seriously considered the proposition. Before raising his shoulders in a 'I guess I can do that' manner and resumed eating.

~~~

"Land Ahoy!" I exclaimed as we could finally see Gecko Island in the horizon.

As we approached the island we could see some smoke rising from its middle. Taking the telescope in hand I looked at the dock of the island and found a single pirate ship. The pirate ship had burgundy sails with a pirate jolly roger stitched on them, the jolly roger had crossed swords instead of the usual crossed bones and wore a top hat.

"It seems we have arrived in the middle of a pirate raid." I said.

Mihawk simply looked ahead in indifference.

As we slowly approached the docks. I realized that the pirate ship was guarded by 2 pirate grunts.

They seem to have noticed us, and started to wave their sword at us menacingly. Probably trying to intimidate us.

But it was obviously the wrong move to do, as in the next instant their ship was sliced in two.

Turning my head slowly I glared at Mihawk, "Couldn't you wait at least till we robbed them of their valuables before destroying their ship." I said in exasperation.

He seemed to have realized and simply looked away.

"*sigh* let's get going I don't want the man I came to recruit to get killed by some random pirates." I said as I jumped off of the ship. Summoning a gust of wind to carry me to the shore.

Mihawk following suit, jumped off of the ship and graciously landed on dry land next to me.

"If the man you came to recruit can be killed so easily. Maybe you shouldn't recruit him in the first place?" Mihawk said as we both started walking leisurely toward the small village

"You're right, that's why I'm not running to his rescue. If he can't deal with a simple pirate crew from the east blue then he doesn't deserve to be on the crew of the future pirate king." I said with my hands crossed behind my head, my gaze fixed on the smoke coming from the small town. A small smirk plastered on my face.

*mph* Mihawk scoffed before locking his gaze at the trail of smoke.

~~~

An hour later, Mihawk and I finally walked out of the forest and into a path leading to the middle of the small town.

As we approached the smoke, we noticed that syrup village wasn't burning it seemed rather unaffected by any attack. It looked devoid of any signs of fighting or struggle.

As we walked through the village, we could hear doors shutting close and people I recognized as villagers watching us from their blinds. Ignoring the stares we simply followed the trail of smoke.

Once we made it into the middle of the village, we were met by a rather shocking scene.

A large pile of blackened corpses were stacked one on top of the other. The carbonized corpses were the remains of a huge bonfire.

Mihawk and I looked at each other, before nodding. Both understanding we had to be careful, stretching our observation Haki around us we slowly but surely approached the pile of corpses.

Looking closer at the corpses, I noticed they all had a single ressemblance. A hole the size of a finger straight between the eyes.

Just as I was about to poke my finger through one of the carbonized heads.

*PEWN*

A speeding bullet was fired at my head, directly from Mihawk and I's blind spots. The bullet was heading straight for the back of my head.

I thankfully had my guard up, and easily dodged the bullet by tilting my head to the side.

*PEWN* *PEWN*

Two more shots sounded in the distance but this time Mihawk took out his large sword and with outstanding technique change the courses of the two bullets with the tip of his sword.

*PEWN* *PEWN* *PEWN*

Not a second later, another volley of bullet followed. As Mihawk occupied himself with the incoming projectiles, I decided to focus on finding this shooter.

Closing my eyes I focused on my breathing, and slowly but surely expanded my observation Haki range. With each breath, my observation covered an additional 100 feet. This feat was only made possible due to the lightning I was currently channeling through my body.

After a couple of minutes, I finally found the man I was looking for. At exactly, 6300 feet away from our location. A man stood on a tree in the middle of the forest. Taking shots at unfathomable distance, we probably looked like ants to him yet not a single shot was off.

With a large grin, I looked at Mihawk and excitedly exclaimed. "I finally found him!"

(A/N Yasopp strength is unkown so the feats I gave him are based on his son. According to a post on Tumblr: "Usopp was able to successfully snipe off several Marines and save Robin while standing at a height of 210 feet at targets that were 6300 feet away, with severe wind, while using A FREAKING SLINGSHOT." So yeah, I believe Yassop the more confident version of Usopp to have tapped into his potential earlier than his son. As for the burning of the corpses it's normal in ancient time to burn corpses especially enemy corpses to prevent spreading of disease.)