Goretober 2024

6~Stitches~

TW: blood, uncomfortable imagery
꧁----------꧂

The island was overrun.

Usopp tried to warn them, but they wouldn't listen to a liar. He tried to fight back and protect his home whether they rejected him or not, but he was beaten up and fatally wounded. He was beyond weak, and everyone he knew was in trouble because of that weakness.

"Captain Usopp!" Piiman cried out, tears streaming down his face. "What do we do now!?"

"RUN!" Usopp demanded fearfully. He shakily touched a hand to his abdomen where the worst of his injuries resided, and he pulled back to find his palm soaked in blood. His whole body was littered with cuts and bruises, like it was bashed repeatedly into the ground and then thrown through a thicket of thorny branches.

The poor kid sobbed, inching closer to Usopp's battered body on the scuffed ground. "But what about you? Y-you're hurt badly and-"

"Get out of here or you'll DIE! Do you understand!?" the sniper pushed, pleading that the boy listen to him and get out of harms way. He'll run and hide just the same, no doubt about it, but not until the three crewmates of the Usopp pirates were far away and safe. Usopp was resolved to distract these heartless crooks as long as necessary.

The revealed captain of this crew, who call themselves the Black Cat pirates, was Kuro, and had been right under Usopp's long nose this entire time. He never liked the guy anyways, so go figure he turned out to be a pretty messed up dude.

Piiman saluted while holding back further tears. He turned to his friends and comrades in arms, tamanegi and Ninjin, and tugged them close by the collar of their hoodies.

"The captain is risking his life for us! We must honour his sacrifice and escape while we can!"

A pirate thug lunged at the trio, but a rock smacked into the back of his head and pitched him forward onto his knees. Taking the cue, the fear-stricken kids bolted away and into the trees, leaving Usopp behind to keep up the distraction.

The sniper stumbled to his feet, slingshot prepared with another rock. So many pirates had already gotten past him and were terrorizing the townsfolk. It hurt him to hear their screams, and so he tried to knock down as many as he could right where he was. Alas, there were just too many... and he was exhausted.

Taking one last shot, Usopp deemed the time right, and he turned on his heels to rush out of there. he could see crowds of people panicking up ahead and running around like their heads were cut off. The village was getting surrounded, and there was no where to go. The sniper cursed to the air.

He awkwardly made his way into town and weaved between buildings until he felt it safe to enter one. Slamming the door tight, he made sure to use whatever heavy item available to block the main entrance, stacking things on top of one another, then proceeded to do that to the back door as well.

Finally given a chance to breath easy, Usopp allowed his body to slump to the cold floor with his back to the wall. They were fighting out there; the people he grown to know through his lies were getting slaughtered like animals, and he was too weak to stop it.

"I did my best," Usopp reassured under his breath, a whimper slipping through at the pain radiating all over his messed up figure. He was keeping one hand on the worst wound, the biggest one that had been cut open really deep, but it wasn't doing any good. Too much blood had already been lost, and any more might result in his death.

This is so scary, he thought. I could've really died back there.

A shiver slithered down his back when that thought crossed his mind. He was too busy in the moment to actually consider the real possibilities there, the adrenaline feeding his actions. Normally, that would've been the only thought in his head, but he was actually brave for once and had tried to control the situation as soon as it arose and was preoccupied since.