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At first there is nothing but a cluster of images, flashing over each other so quickly as to be incomprehensible: Usopp shooting a plume of fire at the flag of the World Government until it burns clean through, a sea of marines in tidy white uniforms, Usopp and his crew standing in a line on top of a roof, a woman with dark hair with her hands shackled behind her back on a building directly across from them and her cry: I want to live!

With that it ends, and the viewer is left with Usopp standing on a dirt road, seventeen years young, all skinny chest and long limbs with one large hand planted over his mouth, expression one of wide-eyed bewilderment. The moment doesn't last long, however, as the sound of screams begins to permeate the air, and it's the same voice as the woman that had yelled just before. Usopp shakes his head once, twice, then stares over in the direction of the sound. He springs from stillness to movement in a instant. He moves too quickly in the beginning and practically stumbles over himself in his haste, but soon works up speed and races across a rickety drawbridge that appears to be strung over a drop that doesn't end. He follows the sound of screams as they begin to elevate into guttural roars of pain and desperation, and his expression betrays his sudden realization that whatever is happening, somebody is dying.

Once he finds the source, the screams have ceased, and a gruesome sight lies before him. The woman hangs limp from the Tree, a monstrous thing too wide to see around and too tall to see the top of. It's not correct to say that she's hanging from it. No, she is hanging from inside it, body slowly being sucked into it and none too gently; there is the audible sound of snapping bones, and there are still traces of her tears dripping down her cheeks. It's only happy chance that her eyes have slid closed, so that she is not staring him down as she dies.

And there's Usopp, watching. He stands, suspended in motion, fear stilling his tongue and pushing the air from his lungs, freezing his legs and fixing his feet upon the ground. Eventually her entire body is sucked into it save for her left arm which falls to the ground, hand still curled around... something. Usopp finally moves haltingly until he's standing in front of the arm, breath coming in huge, horrified gasps. He closes his eyes to compose himself and takes a journal from his bag, then scrawls something in it before promptly collapsing beside the arm. He snatches off his bandanna, throws it to the side and with a shaking hand, forces the fingers open to reveal what she had been so intent on preserving: a small scrap of bark. He takes it from the palm and suddenly his face seems to shut down, expression utterly shuttered. He touches the tips of his fingers to the tips of hers, almost too gently for them to be touching.

He stays there for a while, head bowed, when a man, going by the name of Huo, approaches him and rests one hand on his shoulder. Usopp says nothing at first and rests his hand on the other's before saying, simply, "Hey."

"Hello," Huo says, voice soft, but his appearance betrays the exhaustion that hangs over him like a shroud. "I have seen what you wrote on the journals. But I thought that you should not be alone."

Usopp rises to his feet and holds the staff he had laid beside him upright, both hands wrapped around it. He swallows, expression solemn. He still doesn't turn to face Huo. "Some people from Wellspring are coming to take her arm. I wanted her friends to have the chance to bury it, but it doesn't seem that she had any," he says, voice oddly flat.

"This is a gruesome sight." Huo gestures towards the arm. "It may be that those who care for her find it hard to face. Likely they hope for their return."

"Most people react over the journals when people talk about deaths or disappearances," Usopp murmurs, finally turning to face him, and there is nothing on his face, neither anger nor open grief. "That's what Genius said too. She died holding onto a piece of the tree. I'm giving it to one of the people who responded, but she called Void an ally, not a friend."

"She must have struggled very fiercely..." Huo catches Usopp's eyes. "Sniper-jūn, I hope that you are not thinking of doing something you shouldn't."

Usopp doesn't look directly at Huo, merely trains his gaze somewhere behind the other man. "When my Captain ordered me to burn down the World Government's flag in their own base to save Void, I did it. I knew that, but I still stood here and watched her die." For the first time, something slips, something cracks, and his voice chokes. "Huo, I'm a disgrace."

"Great deeds come easy when you are prepared," Huo says softly. "In the heat of the moment, faced with the obscene, not even the boldest soldier can predict his own action. I tell you this as one who has directed armies."

Usopp takes a huge gulp of air, trying to maintain his composure. "So you were some kind of commander. Nnh--No. Being a pirate means you have to be able to think on the spot. If I... if I can ever go back to my crew, I won't be able to look them in the eye."

"I was a strategist," Huo answers. "I never saw action, yet I was valued. One may be valued for things other than strength - or even courage. If your crew has taken you in before, then they have judged you worthy, with both your strengths and faults. They would not expect from you that which they know you cannot give."

"Yeah," Usopp concedes. "You're smart." He straps his staff back to his back, eyes still cast downwards, but the trembling of his arms betrays what his face does not. "They would have expected me to have tried."

Suddenly, Huo's arm shoots out to grab Usopp's. "You have fought a dragon. Do you remember? You stood your ground and had you not, my oath-brother and I would have been crushed to dust, and who can say how many more after us. ā-Sniper, however much you hurt, a moment's weakness is not the sum of you. There is none alive who has not stumbled in this way. Not even the heroes of your crew."

It is not his words, but the sudden, unexpected touch of human contact that stirs Usopp, and the solemn expression is finally wiped off of his face as he meets Huo's eyes for the first time. He looks stricken, horror and despair and grief mingling together. All he can manage to do is stutter out Huo's name before his shoulders collapse inwards and he raises a hand to cover his face as he weeps, great gasping sobs pouring out of him. There is no contained dignity in his cries, and it shakes him as uncontrollably as they would a child.

"There is no shame in weeping. Our tears honour the dead."

Usopp is silent as he tries to contain himself, sobs coming out strangled as he tries to stifle them and breaths coming in swift bursts. When he is finished, the dreadful blankness that had settled over him after Void's death has vanished. "Thank you, Huo," he musters, words thick and nigh unintelligible through his hand. "N-nothing will change that... that. But thank you."

"You may thank me by making sure to avoid rash action."

"I won't do anything rash," Usopp agrees swiftly enough, but Huo looks unconvinced. He reaches out once more to take his arm.

"No. Look at me. No matter how angry you may be, or what you may think that you must prove, do not cause others the grief that you feel now. Myself, Hawk-jūn, Krile-fūrén - none of us require any proof from you, and none of us will appreciate your putting yourself in danger."

"Hey, what's this all about?" he asks, the lightness of his tone belying the strangeness in his expression. "Huo, I don't wanna die. I've got way too much to do. I'll be careful."

"I know that you do not. I also know all of our instincts. We are wronged, we are spurred to angry action, and then..."

"Yeah, well..." Usopp frowns. "We should be angry. Shouldn't we? It's not just this. I mean, it is this, but - look, Huo, I didn't even know her, even if I should have. But she's the third crewmate of mine to go missing here. And - and it's not only crewmates. I've been pretty lucky here. But Krile, she keeps on losing people. Souji lost both his siblings, and Cloud lost one too. I'm sure you've lost someone too." He looks down, fingers worrying at a loose thread on his overalls and says, quieter now, "I don't want to see Krile have to cry anymore."

"I understand your feelings. I ask only that you remember what you have told me in the Yard. Those like us who possess no great power must before anything else be cautious and wise. If you truly do not wish Krile-fūrén to cry anymore, then you will remember that she cares for you as well." When Usopp doesn't respond, Huo says, "You are not listening again," but the first notes of defeat start to creep into his tone, and he is beginning to look resigned.

Usopp merely passes a hand over his eyes, a weary gesture far, far older than the young vulnerability of his tears, and somewhere in it, something has changed.