damned_institute | Nightshift 37: Gardener's Shed

Usopp blinked furiously as soon as they were inside the shed, between rubbing his ears. Everything that had gone blurry for a moment seemed to be in sharp relief, despite the darkness in the room, now that he couldn't hear that voice anymore.

"That was... I've read about those on the bulletin boards." Usopp looked guiltily over at Sai. Was it something about his ninja training that made him immune, or..? "There's stories like that back home, too. That fishpeople'll eat humans, or that a mermaid's voice can seduce you. But there's also good stories, about mermaids saving drowning sailors, and..."

What was he talking about? Sai didn't need to know any of this. If anything, he looked more than ready to get to work. After all of this time, Usopp was finally in the gardening shed. Opening his bag to pull out the weighty tools he'd stolen from the janitor's closet, Usopp crouched beside the lawnmower, and started to prepare to take it apart bit by bit.

Around the walls, other tools were waiting, including some he didn't recognize. He suggested, "While we're here, let's get some more weeding claws and maybe a shovel too... hey, are those gloves?! Pass me the gloves, please!"

When it appeared that Usopp had broken out of whatever stupor he'd been in, Sai gave the pirate a mostly natural smile. This must be a feeling of relief he was having now. Moving away from the door, he went to grab the items the pirate asked for.

There had been plenty of stories of fish people where Sai came from as well. He'd read about them. Many could likely be attributed to the actions of ninja, however, as seen by the regular populace. None were proven. The creature they'd seen in the water before was the first like that he'd ever seen.

He placed each item at Usopp's side. "How much do you think you're going to be able to manage to carry back?" They might have to prioritize. It was doubtful the pirate even had much room left in his closet.

"Thanks!" Usopp immediately put the gloves on, and then went back to work with greater speed, but not without grinning a bit at Sai with his thanks. "I don't think the stories about fishpeople are true, anyway, I met a bunch of them a while back. They were pretty mean, but not... eating people mean. I beat one single-handed, really! Maybe it's just in this world that fish people are like that. She didn't say anything, either, right? Pretty weird."

A piece of metal came off, and he started to put nuts and bolts to the side in a neat-ish pile, the flashlight balanced on the ground to illuminate his work. "I don't want to carry it back, Sai. It's going to be heavy, there were monsters all over outside, and there's a lot of things I want to bring back. Let's try to have it ready for the end of the night, work as fast as we can and try keep a grip on it so it'll come with us... uh, by the way, Sai, are you doing anything with your closet right now?"

Maybe he should post on the bulletin board asking about leasing space.

"I... wasn't, no..." Sai blinked. He should have figured, really, that the pirate would go to him next if he ran out of space in his own room. "I'm a full block away, however. It might be batter to find space closer." It probably didn't matter in the long run, but he thought it worth stating now. He didn't, of course, know that he was already storing things in Sanji's room, just a hall over. "But I suppose if you need the space..."

Usopp had a good idea when it came to bringing the equipment back with them. It all came down to how the Institute handled objects like that. It was rather large. Would having it in their grasp mean it would necessarily come back with them? "It would be best to have as much as we could bagged up as well. Just in case."

"Right, that's why we brought the sheets and stuff. We can move stuff around later. Tell stupid Mello to answer when people ask to talk to him on the bulletin board or to at least pick up his chemicals if he wants to work with them, they take up a ton of space and I can't risk bumping into them and knocking them over with my other stuff." Usopp gestured at the pile that was slowly forming next to him. "Even the metal paneling might be worth something to the Cooking Club. But it's weird, I don't think there's any..." Trailing off, he picked up his flashlight to look around the walls of the small shed one more time. "Sai... Sai, see that metal canister in the corner? Will you get that for me too?"

After making the request, Usopp leaned forward more, practically burying himself into the machine. "We probably can't take the whole engine, but it's too bad... I'm gonna take all the tubing I can, though, and--this thing is a gold mine. Oh, grab that weird long-handled thing too, keep a grip on it for me? It feels like it took years for me to get in here, I'm not missing out on anything, even if I don't know what it does yet!"

"I'll try to remind him." Sai smiled again, then blinked as Usopp began pointing out more things for him to grab. The canister was easy enough, but 'that weird long-handled thing' took the ninja a moment to pinpoint (mostly because there were several weird long-handled things, depending on your idea of 'weird').

He knelt close to the pirate in a way that wouldn't make it difficult to get back up again, since he knew he'd likely be asked to. Usopp was so cheerful when he was working. "I'm glad we were able to get here," he said. And he meant it. He knew the troubles of trying to get somewhere during the night and not being able to manage it.

"Great, thanks!" Usopp didn't look up until Sai brought back the new items, but when he did, gave the canister a careful look and then a long hug before balancing it in his lap, leaning over it possessively to go back to work on the lawnmower itself.

"This is going to be so cool. Really. Well, I don't know if you care if things are cool or not..." Usopp hesitated thoughtfully for a moment. "It's going to be useful. And also cool. Can you put the stuff in this pile in the pillowcase or maybe the blanket? Do you want to try to carry the metal home too? Zoro's..."

Zoro was due for swords, but had he ever responded to the message? Usopp paused in his work again, his good mood momentarily broken. Then he pushed ahead, pulling out more from the machine. Tomorrow, he'd ask on the board, definitely. No hesitating or worrying about it. He'd be sure nobody else had disappeared yet. "Well, metal's useful no matter what..."

It was always odd seeing someone hug an inanimate object. Sai supposed if someone was really pleased about something there was nothing wrong with it. For a moment, he had an odd mental image of Naruto hugging a bowl of ramen, which would be rather difficult to do without spilling the noodles everywhere.

He started with the pillowcase first, filing it with the smaller of the pieces Usopp broke free, and those that looked most useful. Nodding was about all he could offer in response to the pirate's comments otherwise. The sniper was in charge right now. This was his venture. It was important enough that they'd made it out here tonight and he could get whatever he needed.

Sai thought he might like helping the pirate, which was why he did it so often. Tonight's activities helped keep his mind off of other things, if nothing else.

Working more quietly now, it was odd to think about how long it had taken just to get to this point. These were the last parts he'd need to finish his design for the flame-thrower, for one thing, although the debate on fuel was still at the back of his mind. But he had a lap of it, if he didn't mind wasting a little gasoline. And if he did, there was still alcohol, nice medical alcohol that'd probably be very pure and very flammable. The pipes to move flammable materials around safely inside his machine, along with some of the sealing gaskets, would ideally keep him from blowing himself up.

Still, this place seemed so close to his room; close enough that he was almost tempted to suggest they not risk losing their presents in the name of greed and instead carry them back by hand, but then he remembered the singing not-fishwoman and the birds before. It was a dangerous night out. Better to stay in here and work with Sai.

"Hey, Sai..? Why didn't the woman's singing work on you? Ninja training?" It wasn't an important question, really. But it did seem as though his quests always went better with Sai along. Maybe Sai was a good luck charm. He couldn't think of any time he'd gone out without Sai and had much success, stretching his memory back, unless they counted the night with Luffy and the death slugs, and Sai had been there by the end of that, too. He could credit it just to Sai being very good, but so were the other members of the Strawhat crew, and traveling with them didn't work out so well.

The ninja blinked at the question, just staring at Usopp for a few long seconds. The real question in his mind was - why had the pirate been so affected by it? "I'm not sure what you mean..." He turned his attentions back to the pieces of lawnmower. "I suppose that could have something to do with it."

After getting his hands on one rather long and awkward bit of metal, Sai began unfolding the sheet (off to the side where it wouldn't take up too much room) and placed it in the center. This was going to be difficult to manage. "I don't believe it would have been safe to get near her. Not here."

"For me, it felt like something was clouding my senses. It was hard to concentrate. But you seemed to be okay. I'm sure it was dangerous, though; everything here is dangerous." Usopp agreed, and kept working.

After a bit more work, he added, "It's lucky you were with me. I was thinking of going out alone if nobody showed up. I probably would have drowned, or been eaten, or something."

Sai paused in his own work, a bit of a frown on his face as he thought over the previous situation. "There was something like that for me too, but only until I got a better look at her." He wasn't sure how that affected how her hypnotic abilities worked, but he gave a very small shrug.

When Usopp mentioned going out alone, the frown hardened into something more serious. (Though he wasn't much aware of the expression himself.) He moved closer to the pirate and gripped his arm sharply. "You shouldn't go out by yourself." The words were stern, as though he was addressing a misbehaving child. "Promise me you won't do that in the future."

Usopp hadn't expected that reaction to the idea of going out alone, and wasn't sure if he was touched or offended. After a moment's thought, he decided it was a little bit of both. "... I might seem defenseless to you, but I have kept myself alive for seventeen whole years," he protested, although his tone was low and almost a grumble. "I've fought dangerous things. Even if I'm a lot weaker than you, I'm not as helpless as I look. I'm not totally" Useless? "helpless."

Scrunching down his shoulders a bit, he glanced at the hand on his arm, not pulling away even though the grip almost hurt. "I don't like being in danger or anything; in fact, I hate it, a lot. But if I don't do my best here, I..." Couldn't face his crew? Couldn't face Sousuke? Couldn't face Sai? "I can't depend on someone else all the time to save me. But I'll promise I'll do my best not to go out alone, and I'll let you know where I'm going. Okay?"

Even if he built everything he'd imagined, and it all worked perfectly, and he had fuel and ammunition and anything else he wanted in whatever amounts he wanted, he'd still be weaker than Sai, wouldn't he? Maybe that was why everyone seemed to hear his ideas and then just wander off, or maybe it was because he didn't really believe any of it himself. This wonderful lawnmower he was taking apart, and the fuel in his lap too, were both presents from the same Institute that held them.

The expression on Sai's face fell back into a blank neutral as Usopp spoke, only becoming a smile again once he was finished. "I didn't mean to insult you," he said. "I know you're not incapable of fighting." He looked away, seemingly having difficulty expressing things the way he wanted. "There are just always things, creatures or people, here that we might not expect. I would... prefer to know that my friends had someone to watch their back."

The smile remained as he returned to slowly gathering up the lawnmower pieces, eyes focused down on his task. "That's all."

Usopp looked over at Sai, watching him work for a minute, before starting again on his own task of disassembly. Do you go out alone at night?

"Sorry. I'm in a bad mood," he explained, a little weakly. It was easier focusing on the lawnmower. Usopp was running out of parts he could actually take out and carry off; there was only so much stripping down he could do of the machine with the tools at hand. "Last night, I went out with a crewmate, and we saw something weird. I have really good eyesight, you know? Brook I guess might imagine he saw something like that because he used to be a skeleton, or that's what he says, maybe he just thinks like that now."

Usopp didn't seem to realize he wasn't making a lot of sense, particularly to someone who didn't know Brook or Brook's story. "But I saw it too, in the distance. And even in the dark I'm pretty sure... it was like a lake, but sick, and mostly frozen over, and all around it there were bones." Usopp swallowed hard. "Human bones. We were too scared to go anywhere closer and then night was over, but... a-anyway, we can't risk just staying here, and that means I have to do things too." The fact that he was hugging a gas canister for comfort between his work didn't occur to him as being odd. "I don't want to be the weight holding other people back, either, especially my friends."

A weight? Sai blinked at his friend, confused, before smiling again. "I don't think you're a burden, Usopp. I like having you around." Reaching over, he gave the pirate an awkward pat on the shoulder. That was a general enough comforting gesture, he believed.

Some of the things he said about his crewmates was confusing, but if the others were anything like Usopp and Luffy then they were bound to be a little odd - which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The news of what they'd seen beyond the walls caught his attention, however, and he looked thoughtful.

"Perhaps this is somewhere we should return to with a larger group. It might be important."

Usopp looked back up at Sai's touch, giving back a hapless semi-smile. "I didn't mean whether I was good company or not... but thanks, Sai. And for coming out and helping me get to the shed, too." Even if he was still weaker than everyone else, he'd still keep working on his projects, and at least be slightly more helpful on these trips.

Sai's suggestion at another trip, though, made him shake his head, and shiver a little. "I don't want to go back to that lake!" That had come out a little embarrassingly high. Inhaling hard, he changed his tone a little, before adding, "What if all those bones are from other people who went too close--what if it's poison? What if it's cursed? And it looked landlocked anyway, and we don't have a boat or ship, and the water looked like it was frozen over in parts so we couldn't go anywhere even if we went to it, so there's no point!" Besides, they weren't even in the right world, sailing off in some random direction wouldn't get them closer to home.

Nightshift 37: Gardener's Shed

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject