Kairo would watch as they coated the ship, even turning it into a rooster, with wings and all that, so the plan was simple: go to the Knock Up Stream and get boosted to Skypea, which they now knew existed.
"Old man, do you not want to come with us?" Luffy would say, looking at Monclair.
The man would open his mouth and say:
"My body is too weak, if you had come a few years earlier, maybe."
"Don't you want to clear your family honor or something?" Sanji would take a drag of his smoke. Hm, that was the good shit.
"I do not give a shit about that, it doesn't bother me anymore," the old man would lie through his teeth.
Luffy's brow furrowed, and he would rush to the old man before shaking him.
"Stop lying to yourself, you spent your whole life chasing after this place. You will come with us."
Never took him for the forceful type.
"Luffy," Nami would say, but he just looked annoyed. Something about the old man suppressing what he wanted ticked him off the wrong way. Luffy was the kind of man to punch a woman if need be, so doing what he was doing to an old man shouldn't be surprising.
Kairo would ponder on this. Luffy seemed to be all about freedom, so he probably really hated when he saw something that wasn't free.
Odd, almost felt like he was a warrior of Liberation or something.
{JoyBoy does not exist...}
He froze. That was his own thought, but... wait, he knew Joyboy existed. I mean, he watched it, he knew Nika existed but—
{He can't exist...}
Something in him denied that notion. How could a warrior of liberation exist if such oppression was allowed to roam rampant for so long? He wasn't going to wait for a hero to come and save the day—he would be his own damn hero.
He paused... hm, he knew no history of this body, nor did he have the drive to learn more, but it seemed like whoever it was had been a very traumatized kid, with a very intense hate for the World Government and especially Akainu.
He didn't know why—his body just started violently shaking and his eyes seemed to turn reddish, as if possessed by something.
If he remembered correctly, having ringed eyes meant basically two souls in one body... well technically there was Dave's soul and the kid's soul... so hey, the ring made sense. Though his eyes were yellow, why were they currently slowly turning red?
Well, none of his business.
It wasn't like he was going to meet Akainu anytime soon and start having PTSD trauma kick in and have his will snuffed out by the original or some shit like that.
Anyway, Luffy would seem proud. While Kairo was musing about his internal conflict, he had managed to convince the old man to come with them.
Yay, new temporary companion. They would be going to Skypea quite literally the next day.
Kairo would go back to training his Haki, since they were on land this was the perfect chance to push his body to the limits.
Later that night.
As Kairo got out of the water, having finished his six-hour swimming session while wearing weights, he felt a bit tired. He did plan on practicing more Water Jutsu, maybe use his axe a bit more.
Yet as he got out of the water, he saw it.
Usopp, pulling back his slingshot... and shooting over and over again at the target far away.
"Come on, Usopp, get yourself together."
He pulled on the strings and released his shot, hitting dead center.
"Be useful, do not be a coward. You are leader of 8,000 men, dammit," he would say, hitting dead center every time. Kairo watched as Usopp continued practicing for a very long time, continuing to snipe well after his hands were hurt.
Even when his hands bled a bit, he bandaged them and went back to practicing.
He wanted to be able to assist his friends. In this crew of monsters he was simply an average person, and the only skill he was better than them at was sniping—and that was because it was his specialty.
He was also good at weapon crafting, but sniping was what mattered now.
He wanted to be able to hit moving targets.
He pressed a button and all the targets began to move.
"Come on, Usopp." Seemed like he was cheering himself on.
Hit after hit, he managed to strike dead center. He was laser-focused, and when he ran out of ammo, he could be seen trying to climb the tree only using his Haki.
He was really taking Kairo's instruction to heart. Kairo looked at this and felt like his guess about Usopp was right.
He was a coward, but he was also brave. Like that cowardly dog show he used to watch—though now he realized he couldn't even remember the name of the show.
Courage the Cowardly Dog was it, now.
Kairo would ponder a bit. He would train Usopp a bit more, make him a monster with Armament Haki. He didn't need to be too strong, just be good with coating his weapon with Haki.
A/N this chapter would auto release at around 12 ish.... I will be working till 1:30 so that when next chapter will be up though.