Usopp’s Worries
Thud!
As the lightning gathered and struck an invisible figure, the invisibility slowly disappeared.
The figure had a humanoid body with a strange jaguar-like appearance. He wore a black coat and had made a kissing face until a foot struck that face.
Bang!
As the foot hit the face, it started to deform. The ugliness of the face made Vivi puke on the spot.
"Damn! What kind of beast is this?"
After puking on his face, Vivi couldn't help but curse.
The next second, she realized everyone's eyes were on her and also realized what she had just done.
Not only did she puke on someone's face but also cursed at him on the spot.
More importantly, she was the Princess of the Kingdom.
How could a princess do such a nefarious act?
Well, she simply blamed her ancestors. After all, Celestial Dragons were worse than this.
"This bastard."
After Vivi turned her gaze away, Sanji also changed his attention to the Jaguar-faced man and cursed.
"Who is he?" Zoro asked curiously.
"This is Absalom." Brook replied with a serious tone. Because it was hard to see a serious expression on his face.
Why? Because he was a skeleton.
"Oh, I remember. Liam told us about a guy who could turn invisible. He doesn't look like a human. Is he a human?"
Chopper asked while curiously moving closer to Absalom.
"So, he is one of Moria's men."
Zoro said.
At this moment, Vivi turned her hand into sand and released a large amount of sand around Absalom.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Brook asked in shock.
"Of course, I need to capture him. He is our enemy." Vivi said as she clenched her fist.
The sand instantly crushed Absalom's legs and arms and encased him inside a sand casket.
Gulp!
"Are you going to attack Moria?" Brook gulped heavily and asked.
At this moment, Sanji lit up a cigarette and said.
"Brook, we know about your feud with Moria. Our job is to take out Moria and also help you regain your Shadow."
Hearing that, Brook was stunned. He hesitated for a moment and asked.
"Moria is one of the Warlords of the Sea. He also has a lot of Zombie subordinates. Can you defeat him? By the way, are you the Captain?"
Zoro sneered and said.
"As if this cook can ever become a Captain. He is just a cook."
"What did you say, Mosshead? At least, I am a hundred times better than you."
"You want to fight, shitty cook." Zoro angrily took out his swords and shouted.
"Shut up!"
Merry jumped and punched them on their heads.
"Big Sister Nami has left me with a job to take care of you. If you argue again, I will tie you in the basement."
Hearing her threats, Zoro and Sanji shuddered. They looked at each other and sneered before looking away.
"So, who is the Captain?" Brook was speechless by their conflict but he didn't raise any thoughts on their conflict. After all, it was normal for a crew to have a small fight.
"Our Captain and Vice Captain are fighting someone very powerful."
Boom!
When Vivi said that, a powerful explosion shocked the sea. The flame rose towards the high sky and a deafening sound rang near the sea.
"Woah! What happened?" Brook shouted in shock as the ship began shaking.
"It seems like the battle is getting more and more intense. This kind of fire. Is it from Kaido?" Zoro muttered as he watched the flames rising towards the sky and a powerful shockwave moving towards them.
It had launched a massive tsunami. If they didn't do anything, they would be engulfed by the tsunami.
The problem was that they couldn't leave this place. They had barely managed to find Moria's Ship. They didn't want to lose it.
Thinking of this, Zoro jumped into the air and unsheathed his three swords.
[Three Swords Style]
[One Thousand Eight Caliber Phoenix]
Cry!
A powerful scream came out of his swords and three massive sword slashes emerged. These sword slashes turn a vortex as they move forward.
Bang!
They enlarged in size as they kept moving toward the tsunami before piercing through it.
Splash! Splash! Splash!
That attack seemed to have left a powerful impact on the tsunami. As the middle collapsed, it slowly started affecting the other areas, and the entire tsunami collapsed before even they could reach the ship.
"Oh my god! Your swordsman is so powerful. My swordsmanship pales in comparison to him."
Brook was so stunned that he didn't even hesitate to praise Zoro in front of Sanji which only pissed him off more.
"Show off!"
Sanji sneered before proudly explaining.
"That fire didn't belong to Kaido. I don't know how Luffy did it but it was his attack."
"And, you call others show off." Usopp muttered unhappily.
It was indeed something to be sad about. After all, in the entire crew, his Observation Haki would be second to Captain and Vice Captain.
But the truth was quite hard to swallow. Sanji surpassed him in terms of Observation Haki and his Observation Haki was only a little better than Zoro.
But Zoro also knew Armament.
Liam did force him to train quite a lot. Liam forced everyone but Usopp, Luffy, and Chopper never listened.
They just wanted to play around.
Chopper and Luffy didn't matter. One was a Doctor whose position was irreplaceable while the other had enormous talent and courage.
Both things were important for Haki.
Usopp's Haki wasn't weak considering how less he trained. But, it wasn't strong either because of his fearful attitude.
While his negativity would help in a certain scenario, it wasn't good for his Haki.
Liam tried to fix it many times, but he didn't succeed. He couldn't change anyone. He could help them change themselves, but if they didn't want to, he couldn't do anything.
While there might not be a serious hierarchy in Straw Hats, Luffy didn't want to be second to anyone.
So every time it seemed like Liam was going to surpass him in strength, he would follow Liam's advice and train.
And every time he surpassed Liam, he would go back to his usual playful lifestyle.
This kind of mentality was only possible for someone like Luffy, who could put one hundred and ten percent of their effort while training.
This was the reason why there was such a huge gap in power between straw hats.
Luffy was a Captain and couldn't be weaker than anyone else in the crew. So even if he didn't train, he would always find a way to remain strongest among the crew.
In the original timeline, Luffy and Zoro were equal most of the time. That's because Zoro would always train while Luffy would rely on his monstrous talent to grow stronger after each battle.
In contrast, Sanji was weaker than both of them, but his Germa genetics and training with Zeff allowed him to close the gap between them.
Usopp lacked courage so every time he would resort to tricks. Because of this, whenever they faced a powerful enemy, he wouldn't be able to do anything.
On the other hand, Nami wasn't interested in strength. She only asked for a weapon because she wanted to do something for Vivi desperately.
Franky would always try to improve his gears which was his way of improvement and Robin was similar to Nami.
She only tried improving her strength when she truly became a Straw Hat.
Liam desperately tried to change these factors. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.
No matter how much he tried to change Usopp, his cowardly nature didn't change. Although he was reliable in many circumstances, he also did not improve on his own.
Although Liam couldn't change Luffy, he did manage to make Luffy think more with his brain. In short, he used every event he could find to give Luffy some knowledge.
He tried helping Nami get stronger. Because of his existence, Zoro trained more systematically and had more resources like Haki Potions, Haki Knowledge, Sparring Partners, and Six Styles of Marine.
He didn't need to do anything for Sanji. As long as Zoro improved, Sanji would do anything to close the gap.
He did change Sanji's fate by giving him a new devil fruit.
That's where Usopp was also to change his situation.
Right now, Usopp couldn't change his nature but he could get stronger through other methods.
And, devil fruit was his prime target. Liam had already chosen a devil fruit for him but that needed some time.
So, he was waiting, waiting for his opportunity to improve his strength.
Thinking about it, Usopp couldn't help but sigh.
If only he had resisted the temptation of playing with Luffy and Chopper.
"By the way Sanji, how did you know he was here?" Chopper had also been working on his Observation these few days.
He had already learned Armament so he was getting started with Observation but he didn't sense Absalom.
So, he was worried whether he had truly unlocked his Observation Haki or not.